
Book W 5 __. 



(JPO 



THE 



SCRIPTURE READER'S GUIDE 



TO THE 




DEVOTIONAL USE 



OP 



THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



BY CAROLINE FRY. 

Author of " Christ our Law," « Sabbath Musings," " The Listener/' 
11 Christ our Example," &c. 



FROM THE THIRTEENTH LONDON EDITION, 



NEW YORK: 

ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 

No. 285 BROADWAY. 

1849." 



.Ws" 



CONTENTS. 



Page 
Preface .... . 5 

The Importance of reading the Holy Scriptures . 7 

The Object of reading the Holy Scriptures . . 19 

The Manner of reading the Holy Scriptures . 33 

The Spirit with which the Holy Scriptures should 

be read ...... 45 

The Selection of suitable parts of Scripture for 

perusal . .59 



The Reading of the Historic Scriptures 



The Reading of the Psalms . 



The Reading of the Psalms continued . 
The Reading of the Prophetic Scriptures 
The Reading of the Gospels . 
The Reading of the Epistles, 



. 74 

. 87 

. 103 

. 123 

. 137 

. 153 



PREFACE 



The writing of the following remarks was 
first suggested by questions, repeatedly address- 
ed to me by the less experienced in religion, as 
to the most profitable manner of perusing the 
Holy Scriptures. In preparing them for publi- 
cation I did not forget that the subject has been 
often and fully treated by abler hands ; neither 
did I undertake it with an intention to condemn 
or supersede anything that has been written. 
My intention was only to offer a few hints, the 
result of experience, for which I desire not the 
praise of originality, nor any praise but that of 
employing my time and talents to the purpose 
for which they were entrusted to me. It is a 
long time since I read any of the books in cir- 
culation upon the subject of Scripture Reading. 
If I have unconsciously collected and repro- 
duced the opinions of others, let them be re- 
1* 



D PREFACE. 

ceived as such ; if they are useful, my end is 
fully answered. The testimonies which, after 
the publication of the first section in a periodical 
work, I received of the benefit that had been 
derived from my remarks and many solicita- 
tions made to me since, has determined me to 
republish them in the present form. I feel that 
I have treated an inexhaustible subject but very 
slightly. If, however, to any individual mind 
the value of the Scriptures has been enhanced, 
if a single person has been enabled to read 
with more profit to themselves and more grati- 
tude to God, by the remarks I have made, the 
work has been already blessed beyond its 
merits. 



ON THE 

DEVOTIONAL READING 



OF THE 



$ol£ Scripture 



SECTION FIRST. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF READING THE SCRIPTURES. 

The importance of reading the Holy Scrip- 
tures — Does anybody doubt it ? I believe 
they do, even of those who practise it. For 
to acknowledge the duty of an act, is not 
necessarily to feel its importance. If a mas- 
ter I am hired to serve, or a patron I have 
an interest in obliging, should bid me walk 
to the extremity of London to inquire what 
o'clock it is, I might judge it of importance 
to myself to obey the command; lest I 
should lose favour of more value than the 
pains. But I should think little of the im- 



8 THE SCRIPTURE 

portance of the errand : I should be very 
little curious to know what o'clock it might 
be when I arrived : nor feel much the wiser 
when I returned. This, I fear, is about the 
measure of importance a large number of 
Scripture readers attach to the performance 
of their task. It is a duty. It may not be 
an irksome one, nor do they, perhaps, feel 
any desire to be released from it. The mea- 
sure of performance is entirely in their own 
judgment ; but whether they think they 
ought to read it every day, or twice a day, 
or only one day in seven, there is a sense of 
wrong and danger attached to the omission 
of the practice, which they are very unwil- 
ling to incur. Conscientiously, therefore, 
at these stated periods, be they frequent or 
be they few, they return to the perusal of the 
Holy Book. I would not discourage even 
such reading as this ; heartless and inefficient 
as it is, it is better than nothing. But it is 
heartless and it is inefficient ; and beyond the 
propriety of doing a supposed duty, no im- 
portance whatever is attached to it. It is the 
letter of a printed book they feel it neces- 
sary to read — but what the purport of that 
book may be, is of no importance to the in- 
terests of the reader. They have no percep- 



reader's guide. 



tion of being wiser, or better, or happier, when 
they lay it down — nay, they had not the least 
expectation of being* so when they took it up. 
Unless, indeed, it be a sort of charm, which I 
truly believe some unreflecting persons think 
the Bible has on them, that, without the least 
attention to its meaning, will make them very 
good, and transport them into heaven. 

Our observations on the manner of studying 
the Scriptures are not chiefly intended for read- 
ers of this character : but rather for those, who, 
with an honest and devoted heart, inexperien- 
ced and desirous of advice, go to them as the 
most important of all human studies. But 
these will excuse us, if, in this introductory 
chapter, we dwell on a point to them unneces- 
sary, in the hope of awakening others to some 
interest in what may follow, and convincing 
them that of the very practice they so assidu- 
ously adhere to, they are as yet unconscious of 
the vital importance. 

The sense of duty apart — that sort of tradi- 
tionary or hereditary sense of duty which they 
have received from their parents — the import- 
ance attached to the reading of the Scriptures 
by the unawakened heart, is very little more 
than to the perusal of other books. Some cu- 
riosity respecting the historic relations— some 



10 THE SCRIPTURE 

enjoyment of the poetic beauties — perhaps, 
though I believe not often, some desire of gain- 
ing from it a rule of moral conduct. I say not 
often, because if an inquirer desires informa- 
tion, he will abide by the answer he receives— 
therefore, if I see any one peruse a chapter 
that prescribes one line of conduct, and, on the 
closing of the book, deliberately pursue the op- 
posite, T cannot understand that a rule of con- 
duct was the object of the reading. So little is 
their real idea of the importance of the study, 
they would scarcely conceal surprise, perhaps 
betray disgust, were it proposed to them to read 
the Bible out of the canonical hours they have 
prescribed to themselves. 

The harassed victim of acute disease, if he 
hears of some treatise on his disorder, sends 
for it to his bed, reads it intently, considers 
the statement, and the probability of finding 
relief in the regimen it proposes, because to 
him it is a subject of importance. The health- 
ful puts it aside again — it is .nothing to him. 
The judge who has to form his judgments, 
and to guide his decisions by the different con- 
structions and applications of the law, searches 
the statute book, and refers to the reports with 
the deepest attention, because he needs the in- 
formation they contain. Any other person 



reader's guide. Jl 

will consider them useless reading, or look at 
them from curiosity and amusement only. 
So also the prince, whose life and lands de- 
pend on the issue of a campaign, will read the 
report of a battle with far different feelings than 
the individual who hears of it at a distance as 
news of the day. This is exactly the difference 
between the interested and the uninterested, 
the enlightened and unenlightened reader of 
the Scriptures. One goes to it because he is 
told it is the word of God, though whether it be 
so or not, he has not inquired — and therefore 
he ought to read, though of any good it does 
him he is not conscious : the other, because he 
cannot do without it — it is the chief object of 
his pursuit, and the deepest interest of his bosom. 
I think between these I have observed a mid- 
dle class. They do believe the importance of 
the Scriptures to themselves individually ; they 
think they ought to enjoy the reading of them, 
and be influenced and benefited by it. They 
take it again and again with that determina- 
tion ; but they do not succeed. Conscious of 
the failure, they are uneasy — they have re- 
course to commentaries, in the hope that the 
comment will excite more interest than the 
text — they apply to rules for reading, and hon- 
estly adopt any scheme that any adviser may^ 



12 THE SCRIPTURE 

suggest for the more efficient perusal of God's 
word. But still it is a cold mechanical process 
— they go to it without pleasure, and return 
from it without gain — they hear that others 
find it not thus, and their spirits are disquieted 
within them, by reason of the indifference they 
feel. To such we would greatly desire to be 
useful in the little we may be enabled to 
impart. The evil is very deep — it can be 
reached by no regimen of man's prescribing — it 
lies at the heart's core, too hard as yet to feel 
what the judgment assents to, believing to be 
valuable what yet it does not value. The first 
thing to be done is to ask of Heaven to unclose 
the sealed book, to give the willing heart, and 
the understanding rnind. The next thing is to 
persevere, steadily and anxiously persevere 
against all unwillingness and discouragement, 
in searching the yet lifeless and inefficient word. 
For by it. oftener than by any other means, 
has its own treasure been unlocked, and the 
Spirit of light and truth been conveyed into the 
bosom. If to such an one I could convey but 
temporary and intermediate assistance, amply 
indeed would my labour be repaid. 

There cannot be a stronger proof, and there 
should scarcely seem to need any other, of the 
total corruption of the heart of man, than this 



reader's guide. 13 

absence of all emotion in reading or hearing 
read the word of God. The source whence it 
comes — the character perfectly singular of its 
contents — the immense importance of the things 
it treats of — the destiny, not of single nations, 
but of the universe ; not of the universe in an 
aggregate, undistinguished mass, but of the 
individual, forlorn, forgotten, and despised, who- 
ever he may be, that chances to lay hand upon 
its hallowed pages — the exquisite delights that 
it proposes — the tremendous picture of misery 
it draws — the amazing revelation that it makes 
of things unseen, of the buried past, and the 
impervious future — the enormous stake that 
depends on its being true or not true, rejected 
or received — Can anything but the stupified, 
besotted state to which sin is said to have re- 
duced the heart of man, account for his perusal 
of this book from day to day, without so much 
interest or emotion as he feels at the relation 
of the commonest incidents of domestic life, or 
the fictitious adventures of some unknown 
journalist. 

The effect of this depravity is rendered yet 
more apparent by the change that takes place, 
when the mind is awakened from its death-like 
torpor by the spirit of truth and holiness. Many 
have experienced— will those who have not, 
2 



14 THE SCRIPTURE 

not believe their testimony ? — a change so im- 
mediate and so strange in their feeling towards 
this book, that but for the explanation of the 
change given in the book itself, they would be 
almost bewildered by the strangeness of their 
love for it. When the dusty occupant of the 
upper shelf, reserved for Sunday reading, comes 
down to be their bosom's treasure, the compa- 
nion of their walks, their morning refreshment 
and their evening comfort, more needful to 
them than their daily bread, and more precious 
than rubies in their sight, it is the contents of 
the book, and not the duty of reading it, that 
becomes important. As the exiled child of a 
parent he adores, does not open his letters be- 
cause he is told his father wrote them, and he 
ought to read ; and as the needy petitioner to 
his prince does not ask if he is required to 
peruse the answer to his petition ; so the really 
awakened spirit cannot need to ask how much 
or how often he ought to read the word of God. 
Every syllable it contains is of the deepest im- 
portance to him ; and it contains so much that 
he never can exhaust it by repetition. And 
even if he could acquire all the information it 
contains, he could not the more desist from 
reading — for beside instruction, its words are 
the medicine of his sickness, the comfort of his 



reader's guide. 15 

sadness, the music of his joy, the very aliment 
that sustains him in an ungenial world. Judge 
if it be of importance to him. And let those 
who know nothing of all this, in their cold- 
hearted, ceremonial readings, judge w T hether 
something in themselves must not be the cause 
of so great a difference of feeling, towards that 
which concerns us equally. 

I know that it is not necessary to persuade 
the pious spirit of the importance of reading 
the word of God. Yet even to these, in the 
first fervour of religious feeling, I would suggest 
it earnestly to make the Scripture their study, 
in preference to every other religious book ; and 
particularly while their minds are agitated and 
their opinions unsettled. It is at these times 
we are most disposed to leave it, and seek ad- 
vice elsewhere. We fancy we cannot under- 
stand the word of God ; we ask anybody and 
everybody what they think about the points 
that agitate us. We read volume after volume, 
and argument upon argument; and should 
really, I believe, if the feeling were analyzed, 
rather consent that the Bible be taken from us, 
than that we be deprived of the preacher who 
expounds it. Certainly the spiritual help we 
can afford each other, and especially the minis- 
try established by God himself for our assist- 



16 THE SCRIPTURE 

ance, are advantages he never meant we should 
dispense with ; he knew us too weak to do 
without them ; and to despise these aids w r ould 
be to set at naught his wisdom and goodness. 
Still I do not hesitate to say, that we should 
much sooner come at a right knowledge of the 
truth, and acquire steadiness in religion, both 
of principles and conduct, if we listened more 
to God and less to man — if we took oar doubts, 
and our fears, and our speculations as they 
arise, to the Holy Scripture for solution, accom- 
panied with instant prayer for the Spirit's help ; 
instead of flying to the first book, and to every 
book that has been written on the subject ; till 
that which in the words of inspiration is simple, 
plain, and pure as the sun-beams of heaven, 
becomes confused, mystified, and entangled by 
conflicting arguments and embellishments of 
man's devising, beyond the power of an inex- 
perienced mind to unravel. The essential 
truths of the Gospel are not difficult to under- 
stand, and the path of right conduct is not dif- 
ficult to find. It is impossible they should be ; 
because the persons by whom it is declared 
they will be best received and understood, are 
the poor, the unlearned, and the simple. 
God could not act so much in opposition to his 
own designs, as to make his message incom- 



reader's guide. 17 

prehensible to those by whom it would be wel- 
comed, till they could find an interpreter among 
the wise and learned, by whom he expressly 
says, it would be ill received. And the fact 
confirms the probability. Now T here are the 
Scriptures so well understood, and believed, and 
obeyed with so much honest simplicity of heart, 
as by the unlettered peasant, who learns all his 
religion from the Bible, takes the words on their 
plain meauings, and believes and obeys them, 
because he knows they are the words of God. 
Or by those who, after years of perturbed 
inquiry — after measuring every doctrine by 
their own reason, and weighing every precept 
by their own wisdom, trying if the text may 
not say everything but what it does say, and 
perceiving everything in it but its obvious sense, 
baffled and ashamed, have ended where the 
peasant begins ; and putting to silence the in- 
tellect that has but encumbered them, receive 
as little children the simple word of God, be- 
lieve it without question, and obey it without 
reserve. 

If this is the state of mind in which the Bi- 
ble is by divine appointment to be studied, it 
must be that to which its language is adapted. 
When therefore we find it hard to understand, 
it is because our intellects are blinded and our 
2* 



18 THE SCRIPTURE, ETC. 

spirits darkened by corrupt desires and pervert- 
ed habits of mind. The language of truth is 
too strange to us to be understood — forgotten, 
as our mother tongue might be, in long banish- 
ment from home. We must go to our Father 
to teach it us again — we must study it anew 
from his own lips — we shall find it purest and 
sweetest thence. Instead of putting the Scrip- 
tures aside till we have acquired more wisdom 
and knowledge to peruse them with, we must 
unclothe ourselves of that we think Ave have, 
and earnestly apply ourselves to the study. 



SECTION SECOND. 

THE OBJECT OF READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 

Before anything can be done well, it is 
necessary to know our object in undertaking- 
it ; without this it is the work of idleness. I 
have said that to perform a mere duty is not 
the purpose with which the Scriptures should 
be read. Let us consider then the purposes to 
be answered, and the objects we ought to have 
in view. These purposes are many — as many 
as our deficiencies, our necessities, our de- 
sires. The whole may be comprised in 
three things — Knowledge, Holiness, and Hap- 
piness. These, successively or together, should 
be the object of our reading ; the method that 
will subserve either of these ends will be good ; 
that will be best which shall promote them all. 

Without the Holy Scriptures man has no 
knowledge, absolutely none. He never could 
have had any, of God or himself, or of his des- 
tiny. It was tried for thousands of years 
where the Scriptures were not, by savage sim- 
plicity and intellectual wisdom ; and the one 



20 THE SCRIPTURE 

gained as much, as little as the other. A vague 
idea of deity and immortality, with some few 
scattered lights beside, inherited by tradition 
from their fathers, served to disturb men in 
their darkness, but never to enlighten them. 
It is tried now by thousands where the Scrip- 
tures are. With the book in their hands, men 
continue to form their opinions upon anything 
or everything but what that book contains — 
upon prejudice, upon human reason, upon un- 
examined authorities — oftenest of all upon 
their own base wishes and desires. And what 
do they know ? Absolutely nothing. Of God 
— I speak to one of God, who has not his 
knowledge of him from the Bible, though pro- 
fessing to believe it. He does not turn to the 
bright orb of day and tell me that is God : he 
does not point me to some misformed image on 
his chimney, and tell me that is God : but he 
does little better. His conception is of a God 
all goodness, w 7 ho has created a world all evil, 
and left it to what chances may betide. A 
God who has made laws, but does not expect 
they should be kept, neither intends to exact 
the penalties he has attached to them. A God, 
one, perfect, immutable, about whom everybody 
may think what they please, give him what 
service they please, or, if they please, not any 



reader's guide. 21 

service at all. A God, in short, Creator, Judge, 
Disposer, Lord of all things, the last to be 
thought of, the last to be cared for, the last to 
be trusted, and the last obeyed, after the inte- 
rests of life, the claims of society, and the gra- 
tifications of self have no further demand on 
us. The idea of deity will vary a little more 
or a little less from this, according as the 
knowledge of him has been partially borrowed 
from the Scriptures, without being taken from 
it as a whole; but these adjuncts of truth to 
falsehood produce but the greater inconsistency ; 
and we hear of a God of truth, who will keep 
his word in nothing — a God of holiness, who 
will take corruption to his bosom — a God of 
mercy, who has denounced eternal misery that 
none deserve — a God of wisdom, who has de- 
vised a plan of salvation everybody can do with- 
out, and sent messengers from heaven to teach, 
what men may do as they like, whether they 
will believe or not. This is the knowledge 
thousands have of God, w r ho read the Bible, but 
do not form their opinions from it. 

That man should live in ignorance of him- 
self, an object so near, so intimate, seems even 
more surprising. Yet it is so obvious, it passes 
for proverbial truth. " Nobody knows himself," 
is a current phrase in the world, where nothing 



22 THE SCRIPTURE 

like spiritual knowledge is meant. Deceived in 
his motives, deceived in his desires, deceived in 
the bearing and colourings of his character, he 
thinks he has fulfilled a law of which he never 
knew the import, and earned reward where 
punishment awaits him. He thinks he is rich 
and increased in goods, and has need of nothing, 
while his incensed creditor is at the door, wait- 
ing his coming out to seize and sell him to per- 
dition for his dues unpaid, He thinks he is up- 
right, and strong, and free ; while he has not a 
single power of mind or body that is not en- 
slaved, enfeebled, and corrupted. He thinks he 
serves the one and only God, while he carries 
in his bosom a thousand idols, whom he loves 
and serves, by turns, leaving that one and only 
God unworshipped. He thinks he is fulfilling 
the purposes of his creation in life, and going to 
heaven when he dies, while he has not so much 
as inquired of God's purposes, or cared to fulfil 
them ; but having perverted himself and all 
within his reach, is in a condition that would 
make heaven a place of wretchedness to him, 
might he come there. 

Of his destiny— the traveller knows the way 
he sets out for — the very brute knows the goal 
he runs for — but ask man of his eternal destiny, 
he tells you he does not know : if he spoke 



reader's guide. 23 

truth, he would say he does not care ; everything 
in his conduct proves he does not. Or if he 
has borrowed from Scripture a half-received, 
half-credited report of what w T iil be hereafter, 
and has gotten into his mind a heaven of re- 
ward for obedience he has not attempted, and a 
hell of punishment for evil he does not believe 
he has committed, examine his conception of 
them — the former is something to which he 
means to resign himself when he cannot help 
it, desirable only as the alternative of the latter. 
What either means he does not affect to know. 
And even this knowledge, little as it is, is deriv- 
ed from revelation. We cannot prove it, be- 
cause all men having descended from one who 
had a revelation, no such isolated being is to 
be found ; but it is likely man would never of 
himself have discovered his immortality at all ; 
and if he had, we know from the wild belief of 
different savage nations, it would be made up 
of the things that happen to surround and in- 
terest his mortality. In some sense, savages 
prove themselves wiser than nominal Christians. 
They having no light from revelation, have 
made an eternity that at least will suit them ; 
we, while unregenerate and unsanctified, unable 
to rid ourselves altogether of the light, have a 
heaven in anticipation for which we are totally 



24 THE SCRIPTURE 

unfit. If thus I have correctly measured the 
sum of human knowledge with regard to eter- 
nal things, before the Bible is really and effec- 
tually studied, it is evident that one great object 
of pursuit in reading it, should be knowledge. 

But, important as it is, to know is neither to 
be nor to do. There are those who have a 
thorough knowledge of Scripture, a deep and 
critical knowledge of it — who have perused the 
text til! every expression is familiar to their 
lips — have compared, examined, and digested 
it — read comments, and controversies, and criti- 
cisms, till their understanding is thoroughly en- 
lightened on every subject it proposes — and still 
their hearts remain unchanged, unsanctified, 
unhallowed by its influence. Either as a whole 
they do not really believe it, though they say 
they do, or by reason of their attachment to 
other things, they will take all risks rather than 
comply with its demands. But without recur- 
ring to these extreme cases, the most advanced 
saint has as much need to seek holiness in the 
perusal of the Scriptures, as the unawakened 
sinner ; and the more he is a saint, the more 
he feels this need. When we have been taught 
of God to know Him, to know ourselves, our 
eternal destiny, and that Divine Being through 
whom we are to reach it, with all the secrets 



reader's guide. 25 

of love, and mercy, and eternal bliss his Word 
unfolds — and when we have believed, adored, 
and determined to obey — when we seek heaven 
as our home, and feel as sure of it as the plight- 
ed word of Him we trust can make us ; strange 
as it seems, we may be yet not ready for it. 
Imagine the heir of nobility lost in infancy, and 
brought up in poverty and vice. Let him be 
found again on his approach toman, and recog- 
nized, and taken home, the acknowledged heir 
of his father's house and name. What would 
he be ? He would bring with him the habits, 
tastes, and feelings of his degradation : at times, 
the restraint on them would be so irksome, he* 
would incline to unlord himself again, and re- 
turn to his companions in the cellar : and wheia 
best disposed, and most anxious to become his 
station, in spite of himself, he would find his 
coarse habits, his low propensities, his sordid 
appetites return upon him, betraying his educa- 
tion, and putting him to shame before the 
polished members of his family. There is no 
exaggeration in the comparison. This is the 
condition of every sinner redeemed by Divine 
mercy, and received into the family of God. 
However sure his title, and however secure his 
inheritance, he is still a sinner, and will con- 
tinue so to the hour of his death. But not 
3 



26 THE SCRIPTURE 

contentedly. He is now miserable and asham- 
ed, for habits that once were natural to him ; 
and if they should follow him to heaven, he 
would be miserable there. It is not enough to 
him to know that eternal glory has been 
purchased for him, and bestowed without price 
or merit of his own. The more he sees of this, 
the more he grows ashamed ; the more he feels 
the contrast between what he is, and what his 
high estate demands. He tries and tries, but the 
marks of his degradation still appear. He sees 
them when others cannot. He sees his Father's 
watchful eye upon him, angered and grieved 
by his unseemly bearing, though loving still 
and patient. O ! it is a bitter, bitter struggle ! 
At times he almost wishes to return to igno- 
rance and sin, rather than stand thus exposed, 
degraded, and ashamed ; he would wish it 
quite, but for the assurance he receives that he 
will some time be made fit for the station he is 
placed in and the honours that await him. 
Holiness becomes thus as indispensable as 
knowledge — in some stages of our progress, 
more so — for knowledge sufficient may have 
been acquired — holiness sufficient never can be, 
till we are perfected in glory. Now while every- 
thing in the ordinary occupations of life has a 
tendency to unsanctify the heart, and renew r 



reader's guide. 27 

associations we wish to put aside, everything" 
in the Holy Scriptures has a tendency to holi- 
ness. They tell us, to the minutest particular, 
what we ought to be — what w r e ought to do — 
the life and customs of our Father's house. 
They offer motives so irresistible, principles so 
effectual ; they disclose truths so calculated to 
soften and subdue the natural resistance of 
the heart ; they make holiness so lovely and 
sin so revolting, that though I do not say they 
are the only means, or can of themselves effect 
it, the Scriptures are certainly a most powerful 
instrument in the hand of God to improve the 
character, and sanctify the heart. Therefore 
another object in perusing them should be 
Holiness. 

Need we tell man that he wants Happiness ? 
The former two he may dispute — he thinks he 
has them or can do without. The third ; I am 
not sure — I believe he does not always know 
that he wants that — but there he is quickly un- 
deceived. A few people say that they are 
happy. It may be so. We are told that the 
senseless Bedlamite is happy. Some cheeks I 
have seen, that look as if no tears had stained 
them ; some eyes, as if no sleepless nights had 
dimmed them. I have passed by them a few 
years after, and the cheek was furrowed and 



28 THE SCRIPTURE 

the eye was sunk, but not with age. Sin and 
misery are pledged to eternal union — whether 
they may part company for a time, I cannot 
say — if they do, it is but to join again in more 
lasting and intimate embrace. Whether man 
in general wants happiness, let the aspect of 
society tell — let the crowded hall, let the secret 
chamber tell. Sick with its own, and sick 
with others' miseries, let the experienced bosom 
tell the extent of a demand the world has 
failed to satisfy. 

The want of happiness has driven thousands 
to their Bible, w T ho never else had gone to it — 
they have gone thither, because what was no- 
where else, they thought might possibly be 
there. And they have found it there. Not those 
only whom the world has wronged, rejected, 
disappointed, and so left miserable — but those 
also whom it has caressed, enriched, indulged, 
and still left miserable. Both characters, when 
they have sought happiness in everything else 
and failed of it, have sought it and found it in 
the Bible. We speak of the first great finding, 
when, awakened by divine grace, the heart is 
taken from the world and fixed on God. And 
such happiness is it, when the straitened spirit 
bursts the bondage of iniquity, and goes free of 
the chains that wearied it — when the heart 



reader's guide. 29 

tirst looks upon Deity as a friend, and heaven 
as its hope — to see the extent of our misery, 
and see it escaped — to see the bliss of immor- 
tality, and see it secured ; to see God, that 
being so great, so distant, so awful, brought 
near and manifested in the sweetest lineaments 
of love in the person of Jesus, the sinner's 
hiend, companion, comforter — O it is such bliss, 
it might seem impossible, having learned it 
once and believing it, that man should ever be 
in want of happiness again. 

The enjoyment to be derived from such a 
prospect as the Scripture opens to us, is so ap- 
parent to common sense, and common feeling, 
that many w r ho do not believe the Gospel, have 
wondered why those who do, care anything 
about the intervening trifles of mortality. They 
have w r ondered, because they w^ere not aw r are 
of the sin and partial unbelief which continues 
to distract our bosoms : and the believer never 
ceases to wonder at himself, that he is so un- 
grateful, so weak, so earthly, as to desire any 
other happiness. Those, however, who affect 
to doubt the reality of religion, because that 
which in its nature should be sufficient for hap- 
piness, does not seem to make its professors 
happy, take a very confined view of the fact. 
They see religion in the market-place, and in 
3* 



30 THE SCRIPTURE 

the hall, where it thrives not best. They see 
it in its weak though honest votaries, in whose 
hearts the w T orld and self are yet struggling for 
the mastery, and at times triumphant over 
better principles and purer hopes ; and they do 
not see it where its sufficiency is proved — in 
hearts that without it would break, and with 
it are at rest — in loss, in injury, in agony, to 
which its promises have rendered the sufferer 
almost insensible — in garrets, where the light 
of day cannot enter, but the joys of heaven 
are almost begun — in age, sickness, starvation, 
death. I have seen religion in all these situa- 
tions, and heard its votaries confess their hap- 
piness. If any disbelieve, let them go and see, 
they need not seek it far ; the jewels of the Re- 
deemers crown are hidden treasures, but they 
are not few. 

There is, then, happiness in religion. But 
religious people are not always happy. As long 
as sin remains, its companion tarries too ; and 
takes advantage of every incautious, slumber- 
ing moment, to give a parting wound. Na- 
ture's desires and infirmities remain ; and the 
spirit, winged for heaven, the back already turn- 
ed, the foot already lifted from the earth, is 
assailed by a thousand arrows from beneath to 
bring it down again. The flesh is touched, the 



reader's guide. 31 

wings flutter, the strength fails — down and 
down again — still soaring, arid still struggling 
upward, but still returning, as some fresh mis- 
sile reaches it. The believer's happiness is a 
full cup — but as he drinks it out, he must go to 
refill it where he had it first. He thirsts, and 
must go to the spring — he hungers, and must 
go to be fed — his supply of happiness is not 
within him. The first great source of comfort 
is the Redeemer himself, besought in humble, 
fervent prayer : the Holy Scriptures are its 
richest stream, and are most eminently suited 
to impart it. There is no kind, no condition of 
sorrow, to which they do not address themselves. 
There is no possible circumstance of misery for 
which they do not suggest an adequate relief, 
or of suffering to which they do not administer 
a medicine. To cheer, to soothe, to strengthen 
— to shame our impatience, to allay our fears, to 
encourage our efforts, to unload our bosoms, to 
make us rejoice in the midst of sorrow, and 
triumph in the deeps of despondency — what 
gentle remonstrances, what persuasive argu- 
ments, what powerful examples, what celestial 
promises ! Very little indeed do they know of 
the importance of the Holy Scriptures, who do 
not go to them for happiness. 



SECTION THIRD. 

THE MANNER OF READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 

Many methods and forms of biblical reading 
have been suggested and followed : all. perhaps, 
where the heart is honest, with proportionate 
success. I should be sorry to seem to impugn 
any, or be understood to call them useless, if I 
intimate that they are insufficient. This is not 
my meaning or intention. 

The appointed reading of the Scriptures in 
our churches, is a greater blessing than our 
minds, deadened by custom, are at all times 
aware of. Thousands become in this way fa- 
miliar with the language of Scripture, who have 
no desire to be so, and learn the truth before 
they have a heart to love it. For a time it is a 
dead letter indeed, and makes no impression — 
the less, perhaps, for its familiarity — but still 
the memory registers what the feelings reject. 
And very often it happens, that in moments of 
suffering, or danger, or despondency, the slight- 
ed word comes back ; the neglected truths are re- 
traced ; and they come with a force and mean- 



34 THE SCRIPTURE 

ing they never had before. And no sooner 
does divine grace unclose the thrice barred 
heart, than these treasures of memory be- 
come more precious than mines of gold. To 
the poor who cannot read, or who read imper- 
fectly, this familiarity with the language of 
Scripture has proved invaluable. 

I am inclined to think the same with respect 
to accustoming children to read and learn the 
Scriptures, while it is yet evident that it is a 
mere task, performed like every other task im- 
posed on them. Where this is all that can be 
done, wanting means to impress it on the heart, 
it seems safer to do it than to neglect it ; though 
a great deal of painful irreverence certainly does 
attach to this practice in schools of every kind, 
most painful to the pious heart to witness. 

The family reading of the Holy Scriptures 
bears a character more nearly devotional ; and 
whatever the distracted minds of individuals 
may mix with it of inattention and empty form, 
the practice must be good, and is used, I be- 
lieve, night and morning, in every pious family. 
The very ceremony of summoning a family 
together for such a purpose is an external ac- 
knowledgment of God, and of the importance 
the head of the family attaches to his word ; 
and it is a recommendation of the Holy Book 



reader's guide. 35 

to^the private examination of the individual 
members. I should be sorry to suppose that 
these appointed readings are considered by any 
one as dispensing with the necessity of study- 
ing it in private : by no means can they answer 
the same or an eo i ual purpose. 

In the private perusal of the Scriptures, we 
may consider how far it is advantageous to 
read at appointed hours, and in progressive 
order. With respect to appointed hours, there 
is but to weigh the danger of formality — of 
taking the book because the clock strikes, ra- 
ther than because we desire it — of reading it 
till the time is out, or the number of chapters 
gone through, rather than till w r e have found 
what we are seeking — and ultimately of doing 
an appointed duty, instead of pursuing an im- 
portant object — these dangers, on the one side, 
have to be weighed against the danger on the 
other, that the book might go unread — that 
the right time might not come — that the desire 
might not come — that every casual interference 
of secular duty would put it off — in short, that 
the reading of the Bible would wait our leisure, 
and ultimately our idleness. This would be 
the worse evil of the two ; and therefore the 
appointed season seems desirable ; for all at 
least, but those whose condition and state of 



36 THE SCRIPTURE 

mind render this neglect impossible. But 
while I assent to this prescription of hours, 
from a conviction that nature is not to be trust- 
ed, I feel that the spiritual mind cannot be 
shackled by it. While it remains as a check 
in times of distance and distraction, it will be 
forgotten when the heart is tuned to piety. 
They who want happiness cannot wait the ap- 
pointed time to look for it— they who are walk- 
ing in a perilous path cannot wait a prescribed 
hour to consult the way-marks. It is impos- 
sible. While the winds are blowing, and the 
waves are breaking, and the rocks and shoals 
are at hand, will the mariner wait the striking 
of the hour to observe his compass and consult 
his charts? It cannot be ; and the heart that 
has not discovered this, has something yet to 
learn of the value and importance of the Holy 
Scriptures. 

In the public reading, in which I include fa- 
mily reading of the holy text, progressive order 
is perhaps desirable. Individual feelings can- 
not in this case be consulted ; and to go regu- 
larly though the books, or certain selected 
books, ensures the presenting of every part in 
turn, and provides against ignorance of any- 
thing God has thought proper to impart ; for to 
say there is any portion of Scripture that needs 



reader's guide. 37 

not to be known, is, I think, too much presump- 
tion. In private, I do not think this systematic 
reading is desirable. Of the many objects we 
have in view in searching the Scriptures, it ap- 
pears to me that knowledge is the only purpose 
likely to be subserved by this mode of reading. 
I admit this is a most important object ; and to 
attain it some mode of studying the Bible for 
spiritual, as we study other books for secular 
information, may well be recommended, parti- 
cularly to those whose knowledge is vet but. 
small of God and of his ways. But this study,, 
in which regular progress is desirable, and the 
reading of the whole quite necessary, I would' 
consider as quite distinct and apart from the 
devotional reading of Scripture — the daily food, 
the daily medicine, to strengthen and refresh 
the spirit. This should surely be not the chap- 
ter that happens to come next, the page where 
the ribbon is in — but whatever part will best 
answer to the desires and necessities of the mo- 
ment. Of this I shall speak again. 

I have before alluded to the disposition of the 
weak and ignorant, and unstable in religion, to 
have recourse to commentaries, under the idea 
that they cannot understand the text. Com 
mentaries are very valuable ; and we have 
some which to despise would be presumptuous 
4 



38 



THE SCRIPTURE 



Not for a moment would I be understood to de- 
preciate them. But I must repeat my appre- 
hension, for I know it well grounded, that many 
persons are in danger of preferring the commen- 
tary to the text, and giving less attention to 
God's word than to man's explanation of it. I 
have seen the tender growth of spirituality 
withering under this substitution of terrestrial 
for celestial light ; and tracing the effects to 
their source, I have found that what began in a 
laudable desire to be assisted, ended in the 
transfer of all confidence and all inquiry from 
God to man. Let us have recourse to com- 
mentaries to explain any text that seems to us 
obscure ; to apply any text that we know not 
what use to make of; to resolve any critical or 
historic difficulty that occurs to us. Let them 
be our helps, particularly, when in search of 
Biblical knowledge. But if we find the sacred 
text become dull, difficult, and unimpressive, 
without a commentary, it is time to suspect 
ourselves. Something very wrong must be in 
the feeling— it must not go on, lest it end in 
that fatal preference I have described. It is the 
propensity of nature not only to take by pre- 
ference that which is evil, but to convert into 
evil in the using that which itself is good. 
Thus nothing can be more valuable than the 



reader's guide. 39 

assistance one man's experience can impart to 
another ; the knowledge and wisdom collected 
and collated for our use. by those who have 
gone the path of faith before us : and nothing 
but our own incaution can convert this store of 
wholesome provision into an enfeebling and 
dangerous aliment. By all means I would 
commend the use of commentaries, when we 
feel we can be assisted by them ; but not at all 
times — not as if the Bible had no force or sense 
without them. This is a dangerous feeling to 
encourage, and false as it is dangerous : the 
word of God is and ever will be sufficient for the 
work whereto he sends it; and the finest com- 
mentary that ever was written, or all of them 
united, falls short of the meaning the experienc- 
ed Christian finds in the first simple words in 
which the Holy Spirit dictated the text. 

Others have considered that it is better to 
make the Scripture its own interpreter ; read- 
ing it, instead of a commentary, with the 
marginal references, and thus pursuing the 
text to its extent of meaning, by reference to 
others that bear upon it. I have no doubt that 
great knowledge of the Bible, and very accurate 
perception of its meaning, may be acquired in 
this way— better, perhaps, than by any othei 
method whatever : for all the errors that have 



40 THE SCRIPTURE 

professed to derive themselves from the Bible, 
have arisen from taking some parts of it to the 
exclusion of others. 

The method, however, which, in addition 
and in preference to all or any of these, I would 
recommend to the inquiring Christian, is what 
I should call the devotional reading of the 
Scriptures. At appointed seasons, or when the 
heart suggests it, disposed to it or not disposed, 
understanding or not understanding, let them 
daily read it — shall I say on their knees ? I 
do not know why I should not — for it is the 
posture of devotion — and if the posture were not 
a help to devotion, I suppose it would not have 
been universally adopted and commended. 
But, at least, in the same manner as they would 
compose their minds for prayer, entering upon 
it with the same feelings, and with similar 
intent. 

The first thing necessary to this is to impress 
the mind with a sense of God's presence while 
we read. We know, as a matter of credence, 
that God is always present with us ; but to 
have a perpetual sense and remembrance of 
this is a high attainment, and can be boasted 
only by persons of very deep devotion. There- 
fore, when we pray, we are accustomed to con- 
sider ourselves as going to God, as presenting 



READER S GUIDE, 



41 



01. selves before him, and claiming, as it were, 
his more direct attention to what we come 
about. It is this feeling of entering into the 
immediate presence of the Deity I would have 
induced, in order to read his word with a devo- 
tional spirit. 

The next essential is a desire — not a general, 
bat a particular desire, for something definite, 
which in the Bible we expect to find. I have 
before said, that the objects of our reading are 
three — Knowledge, Holiness, and Happiness. 
But these three may be subdivided into a thou- 
sand : and it would be well, that when we set 
about to read, we know exactly what we wish 
to be informed of — what sin we desire to have 
removed, or in what point of conduct require to 
be directed — what suffering we would have a 
cure for, or what blessing would obtain. Is it 
said that at the time we may not happen to 
have any definite desire, and yet it would not 
be well to delay the reading? We have 
already spoken of those who have no object 
in reading the Bible but to fulfil a duty of 
which they do not feel the utility, neither ex- 
pect from it any benefit. To them we can but 
say, read on till you do, and pray that you 
may ; for till then the Scriptures are a useless 
letter to you. But if there be any who wish 
4* 



42 THE SCRIPTURE 

to be benefited by the perusal, and believe that 
they might be, and yet do not know what it is 
they want or may expect — there is a desire at 
once definable — let their object be to find out 
what they want, and \*hat the text contains, 
and, for the present, let that be the direct pur- 
pose for which they go to the perusal. But if 
the soul is really awakened to a concern for 
itself, this cannot long be the case. Desires, 
necessities, demands, will multiply a thousand 
fold, and from day to day become more urgent : 
succeeding each other in restless rapidity. Of 
these, some one or other will prevail, according 
as we are at the time under the influence of 
external circumstances or inward emotions ; 
and nothing but a want of self-examination, 
and a culpable ignorance of what passes in 
our hearts, can prevent our knowing which it is 
that at the moment predominates. If, however, 
there should be any such days of insensibility 
to the pious reader, the best object of pursuit 
for that time would be a cure for the dissipa- 
tion or the pre-occupation of mind which has so 
completely withdrawn it from self-observation. 
In this manner every impediment to the read- 
ing of Scripture would become itself an object 
of perusing it. For the most part, I believe, 
the predominant desire will be sufficiently im- 



reader's guide. 43 

portunate to make itself both felt and under- 
stood. 

Another requisite to the devotional read- 
ing of the word, as indeed to all devotion, is 
that we remember always there must be a 
third between ourselves and God. Our prayer 
could never have gone up to him without an 
Intercessor — his will can never descend into 
our hearts without an interpreter. Jesus is the 
intercessor between us and the Father — the 
Holy Spirit is the interpreter to us of his will. 
When, therefore, we would either offer or re- 
ceive, these must be remembered and their aid 
obtained. Without the assistance of the Di- 
vine Spirit, the Bible cannot be understood by 
the most wise and learned — with it the peasant 
and the child will find his intellect enough to 
compass it. It is not sufficient to admit this as 
a speculative truth, and then forget it. There 
must be a genuine conviction of our incapa- 
bility, an honest belief of assistance to be given 
to all who ask it : and this must be called to 
mind whenever we go about the task. I fear 
it is very generally forgotten, or virtually disbe- 
lieved ; which accounts for much of the ill-suc- 
cess complained of in perusing the word of God. 



SECTION FOURTH. 

THE SPIRIT wnn WHICH THE HOLY SCRIPTURES 
SHOULD BE READ. 

When I have said we should go to the peru- 
sal of the Holy Scriptures with a consciousness 
of God's immediate presence, it seems scarcely 
necessary to add, that we should go to it with 
an honest and a perfect heart. Much, I believe, 
of the unsuccessfulness, the want of interest and 
want of profit complained of by the readers, 
arises from the want of an honest purpose. 
They do not mean to find, they would rather 
not find, what they go to look for — or they are 
perhaps determined not to believe it, if they do. 

Is it asked, who has a perfect heart to bring 
with them ? — assuredly none, if by perfect, we 
understand a sinless heart. I mean not to say, 
that any degree of sinfulness should prevent our 
entering on our devotional reading ; not even 
if it should be the present feeling of im- 
proper or unholy passions ; not though we 
should be at that moment under the conscious- 
ness of rebellion and disobedience to God, of 



46 THE SCRIPTURE 

anger or injustice towards others, of pride, of am- 
bitious wishes, and dispositions wholly earthly. 
Rather is there the more reason we should hast- 
en to our Bible to get wisdom, to get reproof, to 
get shame for our unholiness, and strength to 
contend with our corruptions. To the perfect, 
sinless heart, if any such there were, the Bible 
would scarcely be necessary. Still it is a Scrip- 
ture expression, and must mean something. I 
believe it means a simple heart, an entire heart ; 
one single in principle, single in its object and 
desires ; undivided in its choice of heaven, un- 
divided in its trust in Jesus, and undivided in 
its determination to resist sin, and pursue holi- 
ness. This is that pure and perfect heart so 
often spoken of in Scripture. This was the per- 
fectness of Paul's heart, when he gloried even 
in his infirmities, and looked upon the very im- 
perfections that humiliated him, as tending to 
his ultimate perfection. This was the perfectness 
of Peter's heart — Peter, who but a few days before 
had abandoned and denied his Master, when he 
called Omniscience to witness that he loved him. 
And this was the perfectness of Job, and the 
perfectness of David, to which, in the midst of 
his penitence, he appeals so often. The seed 
by divine grace implanted, is a perfect seed. It 
grows up among many thorns — it needs the 



reader's guide. 47 

daily dews, the daily sunbeams from above — 
many a bleak wind will blow on it, shiver its 
branches, and haply blight its flowers — if left 
uncared for and unwatched, it would shrink 
and die. Still it is a perfect principle ; and the 
heart in which it is implanted, is an honest one 
with all its loathed corruption and its hated 
sins ; because it would part from everything, and 
suffer everything to be made holy. 

With an honest and a perfect heart, then, we 
should go to the perusal of God's Sacred Word. 
For instance, we have recourse to the Bible for 
knowledge. We would be better informed 
upon some particular points of doctrine, or upon 
the doctrines of the Gospel generally. The 
disputes of others and doubts of our own, have 
left our understanding at fault, and we scarcely 
know what we ought to believe. Wisely we 
refer to the written word of God, the only 
standard and the only test of truth. But in 
what mind do we open it? Perhaps we have 
received our opinions from some person we 
esteem or some set of people we are in the 
habit A admiring. We are determined they 
shalL be right. The Bible shall say nothing 
but what they have said, nor more nor less. If 
it does — w r e do not own as much, but in the 
secret of our hearts, we are determined the Bi- 



43 THE SCRIPTURE 

ole shall not mean what it says. Perhaps, 
wise in our own conceits, pre-endowed with a 
knowledge of how things ought to be, pre-in- 
formed by reason and common sense, or some- 
thing we mistake for them, of what Almighty 
wisdom ought to do, or is likely to do, we go to 
his word determined to believe nothing that is 
inconsistent with his goodness, his justice, his 
character, as we are pleased to call our srratui- 
tons notion of his attributes and their probable 
manifestations; though the words of Scripture 
are as plain as if written with a sun-beam, we 
are determined to understand them in no sense, 
but the one we think they ought to bear. 

We go to the Bible for holiness. Perhaps 
we do not advance so much as we desire in the 
ways of God. We find no increasing subjuga- 
tion of our tempers or detachment of our hearts 
from earth — no growing love of things divine, 
and nearer communion with God. We would 
inquire what is the matter. Scripture might tell 
us there is a defect in our creed : we have set out 
wrong : we are depending too much upon our- 
selves, and too little on Jesus : we have not a 
clear view of the means of salvation, the only 
source whence sanctification of the heart pro- 
ceeds. But, oh ! we will believe nothing of all 
that. Doctrines cannot signify — better go on 



reader's guide. 49 

in the path of duty, than fill the head with no- 
tions. We know many good people who be- 
lieve nothing of this. * We do not see at all 
how such doctrines should be oroductive of ho- 
liness. Or it may be that we desire direction 
in some particular points of conduct, some ha- 
bits, some pursuits, some long-cherished feel- 
ings, now first suspected to be sins, some bosom 
gods, now first suspected to be idols. We go to 
the word of God — the only way-mark ; but we 
go determined not to see which way it points. 
There it is ; but it condemns those we love — 
they cannot be in the wrong. There it is ; but 
it forbids us something we cannot by any 
means perceive the evil of. We have come 
furnished with replies, circumstances, peculiari- 
ties, expediences in abundance. In short, we 
come not to seek more direction, but to excuse 
ourselves from following that we have. 

Lastly, we recur to Scripture in search of 
Happiness. And alas ! we are not honest even 
there. For we come determined not to be 
made happy. Cares that we have deposited at 
our chamber doors, we are determined to take 
up again as soon as we emerge from them. 
Sorrows and regrets that we have brought with 
us, we are determined to take away, whatever 
remedy be proposed for them. Wishes, de- 
5 



50 THE SCRIPTURE 

sires are in our hearts, which we are determin- 
ed not to relinquish, though heaven, though 
God himself be offered us instead. 

O let us see, before we presume to open our 
Bibles in the presence of God and on our knees 
before him, that all this falseness be not in our 
hearts. For if it is, what have we to expect ? 
God, into whose presence we have come with 
so much form of reverence, whose attention we 
have called, as it were, to our devotional peru- 
sal of his word — his word immutable, eternal, 
and the only truth — God, who cannot be de- 
ceived and who nothing overlooks of human 
secresy — what should he think of such strange 
applicants, determined not to see what they pre- 
tend to look for, determined not to find what 
they pretend to seek, and not to have what they 
came on purpose to obtain ? If his gracious 
endurance bears with such strange folly, it is 
more indeed than it deserves. With favour he 
cannot look on it — answer he cannot deign to 
it — with blessings he cannot bless it. He fill- 
eth the hungry with good things, but the rich 
he sends empty away. These applicants, so 
rich in other men's wisdom and their own — 
these supplicants have come so finely clothed — 
nay, they have come armed — they have brought 
arguments for his arguments, reasons against 



reader's guide. 51 

his reasons, purposes for his purposes. They 
have brought the opinions of some miserable 
being of the earth, to measure by them the say- 
ings of Omniscience. They have brought the 
example of some slave of sin, to try by it the 
precepts of his holy law. They have brought 
the world to judge its Maker. It did so once 
when in the perfection of humanity he appear- 
ed before it, and found him guilty. It does so 
still. The tribunal of Pilate is not the only 
place where Deity has stood arraigned before 
the creature ; it is done in our houses, in our 
chambers, in our hearts : and the w r orld's 
judgment ever has and ever will find its Ma- 
ker in the wrong. 

Surely, if anything of this dishonesty be in 
our bosoms during the perusal of the Holy 
Scriptures, there is little cause to wonder that 
we derive no good from it. Well has that 
Scripture said, " Study as little children" — 
with hearts as simple, as credulous, as ignorant 
— the babe disputing with its teacher over the 
sounds of the alphabet, would not be so absurd, 
as the mind of man bringing his own reasonings 
and prejudices against the word of God. 

Whenever we open the Bible, then, we must 
endeavour to have a firm persuasion, and a 
present recollection that it is God's own word. 



52 THE SCRIPTURE 

Without denying it, there seems to want in 
many minds a practical certainty of this fact. 
Do not take it for granted, without examination, 
that you believe this. Is it what David says, 
what Paul says, what the Bible says, that you 
are reading? Or is it before you consciously 
as what God says? r ihis is a very subtle un- 
belief. It betrays itself in conversation very 
frequently, and I am afraid it lurks very secret- 
ly sometimes in the bosom. The consequen- 
ces are obvious. Paul or David might mistake 
- — they might express themselves unadvisedly 
— they might not foresee the misuse that would 
be made of their expression — they might ven- 
ture things true, but expedient — they might 
speak under circumstances that, if known, 
would give quite a different purport to their 
words : and we find ourselves perpetually rea- 
soning as if this could have been the case. 

It is not within my design to prove, that the 
Bible is the word of God. I must take it for 
granted that our readers believe, or think they 
believe it to be so ; offering only a word of cau- 
tion that they do not deceive themselves. Sup- 
pose, for example, you are shown in the Bible 
these plain words — " Love not the world, neither 
the things of the world" — "If any man love 
the world, the love of Christ is not in him." 



reader's guide. 53 

You say that cannot be. It never was intend- 
ed we should give up any of the enjoyments of 
life for the sake of religion — it is impossible to 
live in the world without being anxious and 
troubled about the things of the world — it is 
altogether natural and quite proper we should 
contend for its great things and good things, 
its wealth, its honours, its applause, for ourselves 
and our families— we must do as others do, so 
long as we are here — the world is of as much 
importance to us as to others. Then do you 
believe those are the words of God? You 
answer, Yes ; but God does not mean this. 
Do you suppose, then, that God should say 
what he does not mean 7 No ; but he may be 
misunderstood — he meant something else — he 
meant that we should not love what is sinful 
in the world. But if God meant this, why did 
he not say it? When he condescends to use 
the language of humanity, to make known his 
will to men, do you suppose he will not use the 
plainest, and such as may best express his 
meaning? You will perceive, if you examine 
the actings of your mind, that you have already 
forgotten it is God who speaks — you are argu- 
ing as you justly might were these the words 
of man. Or take another instance. It is writ- 
ten, "The children of God must not strive." 
5* 



54 THE SCRIPTURE 

These are plain words, admitting of but one 
sense ; and making no exceptions to the posi- 
tive prohibitions they contain. If they are the 
words of God, all strife, all quarrelling, con- 
tending, disputing, and caballing, is forbidden. 
Yet is it not common amongst us both to do 
these things and to defend them? To talk of 
a becoming spirit, a quick sense of injury, an 
impatience of contradiction, and eager vindica- 
tion of our rights, as if they were almost virtues ; 
and when this text is proposed, to answer that 
we cannot help our temper, that we must not 
suffer ourselves to be offended with impunity, 
and must contend for what is due to us as well 
as others? Then has God spoken in vain, or 
these are not his words. I have chosen these 
texts as the first that occur to memory. When- 
ever you feel disposed to dispute against any 
part of the Bible, examine yourself if this is not 
the process your mind is performing ; for among 
those who think they believe the Bible to be 
the word of God, there are many, very many, 
I fear, who believe one half of it to mean no- 
thin sr, and the other half to mean the exact 
opposite to what it says. Why should God 
speak at all if this were so ? He might have 
left his servants to fill a book with guesses and 
mistakes^ uncertain precepts, and equivocal 



reader's guide. 55 

truths. Be satisfied, when you open the Sa- 
cred Book, and let the recollection of it be ever 
present that it is the word of God himself — of 
course true — of course consistent — of course ir- 
revocable — and of coarse, since it is the only- 
revelation of his will that he has made to man, 
intended to enlighten, not to puzzle you. This, 
with the recollection of God's presence with 
you while you read, will go far to produce a 
right state of mind for the study of his word. 
For surely thus you will perceive the folly of 
bringing w T ith you any of those excuses, argu- 
ments, opinions, examples, circumstances, and 
expediences, with which you have presumed to 
answer the words of Scripture ; as if it had not 
been written by one who knew them, and fore- 
saw them all, and would have noticed them, 
had they been of any importance in his sight 
or made any difference to his designs. If you 
are not able immediately to perceive the mean- 
ing of the more obscure doctrinal passages, you 
will feel the necessity of believing all that you 
do perceive ; though it should be contrary to 
every opinion you have formed before, and 
contrary to what you have desired in your heart 
to find it. Those parts which regard the con- 
duct and disposition, which are invariably plain, 
simple, and unequivocal, you will receive as de 



56 THE SCRIPTURE 

cisive upon whatever subject you have consult- 
ed them, though they should condemn yourself, 
and all around you ; assured that if the precepts 
had been unnecessary, they would not have been 
given ; and if there had been times and circum- 
stances in w T hich they were to be reversed, it 
would have been specified: to suppose other- 
wise, is to make God more unwise and impro- 
vident than any earthly legislature ; for wher- 
ever general laws are promulgated, if excep- 
tions are intended, care is taken to make them 
understood. 

For those treasures so abundant of peace and 
joy contained in the Holy Scriptures — " Ye 
drunken, but not with wine," " Ye tossed with 
tempests, and not comforted," " Children of 
sorrow, wasted with misery," why do you find 
nothing where there is all, and die for lack in 
the midst of profusion ? Because you have 
not an honest and a perfect heart. If, when 
you lay your hand upon that sacred Book, you 
would remember it is the word of Him, who is 
the Giver and disposer of all things, who is not 
a man that he should mistake, nor a son of 
man that he should change — and when you un- 
close it, if you would remember that His look 
is upon your heart, and his eye in the depths 
of your bosom — you would not venture, I think, 



reader's guide. 57 

to bring those idols with you, for whose sakes 
your spirits arc broken — nor those schemes of 
earthliness, nor that sensitiveness of pride, nor 
that careful value fov the things that perish — 
ingredients of the cup of whose bitterness you 
complain. You would not persist in calling that 
blessed, which God has not blessed, and that a 
curse, to which his sweetest promises are pledg- 
ed ; nor hold that impossible, which he has 
said shall be, or that necessary, which he has 
said nay to. You would not bring your broken 
cisterns to the fountain, and w r onder why they 
hold no water — the madness of thousands, who 
persist in gathering of a tree the fruits it never 
bore : and from w 7 inter to summer, and from 
year to year, wait and wait, and wonder that 
their thistles still bear thorns. This cannot 
God himself accomplish for you, that you 
should taste sweetness in the wormwood's 
juice ? Bring the bosom desert, and he will 
make it blossom as the rose — bring it rank, and 
overrun with weeds, he will root them out, and 
plant the vine and olive in their stead. There 
is happiness in that sacred Book ; but it 18 
happiness of God's devising, not of man's. 



SECTION FIFTH. 

THE SELECTION OF SUITABLE PARTS OF SCRIPTURE FOR 
PERUSAL. 

With a mind unclothed of its own wisdom 
and its own folly, willing to forego alike its 
weakness and its strength, and like a simple 
and unlearned child to listen and believe what- 
ever has been written — with a heart honest 
in pursuit of Knowledge, Holiness, and Hap- 
piness, and persuaded it may be found in the 
written word of God — with a consciousness of 
God's presence, a sense of immediate want, 
and a sensible expectation of the Spirit's influ- 
ence, if I take daily this Holy Book, alone and 
on my knees, where shall I open it ? What 
shall I read in it ? 

I have before mentioned, promising to revert 
to the subject, that I do not think a progressive 
order of reading to be in this sense desirable. 
I take it for granted we have such a general 
acquaintance with the Scripture, as to know 
the purport and character of the different books, 
so as to enable us to select from among them 



60 THE SCRIPTURE 

such as are suitable to the object we have in 
view. We know, for instance, the character of 
the Psalms, of the Books of Moses, of the Pro- 
phets, the Gospels, and the Epistles, as they 
are different and distinct from each other. In 
that in which each Psalm or each chapter dif- 
fers in character from the rest, if we are not 
sufficiently versed in the Scripture to know, or 
have not sufficient memory to recall them, the 
heads usually given in our Bibles, or the eye 
cast carefully over the page, will quickly point 
out to us what we are in search of. A few 
minutes spent in looking for something to suit 
us, will not be ill employed : we may find 
something by the way that suits us also, 
though we were not looking for it, and thus get 

O CD / CD 

a benefit the more. 

There are two characters in the divine Word 
that afford exhaustless admiration to the reflec- 
tive mind — its perfect unity, and its infinite 
variety. So perfect the one that there is 
nothing which consists not, nothing that har- 
monizes not, nothing that contravenes or con- 
tradicts, or even so much as betrays a separate 
purpose or an unconnected end. The other so 
infinite, that amid the hourly change of cir- 
cumstances, feelings, habits, and desires, to 
which our mortal being is subjected, to every 



reader's guide. 61 

possible state and condition of mind, there are 
parts peculiarly and designedly adapted. It is 
common to us to say, that it seems as if such 
and such a chapter had been exclusively ad- 
dressed to ourselves, as if it had been written 
on purpose to meet our case. And so in fact it 
is. Omniscience at a glance beheld every case, 
and every circumstance, and every doubt, and 
every desire that ever the bosom of his creatures 
could conceive ; and addressed himself to it in 
particular, and answered it in particular, and 
adapted some portion of his word to the indivi- 
dual case. Such is the measure of his wisdom. 
Such is the treasure-house he has filled with 
his abundant stores. But man comes, and 
comes, and finds nothing in it that he wants, 
nothing worth carrying away. When he goes 
to the market, he knows what business he goef 
upon — he seeks his object, gives it his attention, 
and does not return till he has done his errand. 
When he goes to the bazaar, he knows what 
he wants — he sees the thing that will suit him, 
and carries it away with him. When he 
comes to the Bible, this store of heaven's pro- 
viding, so full of everything most needful and 
most precious, he gapes about, he knows not 
his own errand — he reads and reads, counts his 
chapters, looks at his watch, and goes away — 
6- 



62 THE SCRIPTURE 

he takes nothing, for he wanted nothing — he 
has done his business for to-day and will come 
again to-morrow. 

As in the natural world the beneficent Creator 
has provided not merely for the necessities and 
enjoyments of men in general, but provided, as 
it were, for every difference of taste, habit and 
constitution — one aliment for the vigorous, 
another for the weak — one pleasure for the 
rude, another for the refined — one atmosphere 
for the healthful, another for the sick — one pur- 
suit for youth, and another for age — and all in 
such variety, that the very changes of our fancy 
may please themselves in the abundance — so in 
the riches of his grace, the beneficent Redeem- 
er has made the characters of his book to vary, 
that every one at all times may be suited. And 
^vliile all in itself is equally good, and no part 
of the Bible can be said to be better, or more 
valuable, or more beautiful than the rest, it will 
be found that every spiritual mind had its 
favourite part, changing as its own condition 
changes. The rest will not be neglected ; but 
still this favourite portion will be reverted to 
most frequently. At some times the argumen- 
tative epistles of St. Paul will have the greatest 
interest ; at other times, the penitential breath- 
ing of the tried and chastened David ; and at 



READERS GUIDE. 



63 



others again, the holy precepts and examples of 
Jesus himself, as contained in the narrative of 
the Gospels. From the varying character of 
these divine writings I am persuaded it was in- 
tended this should he so ; and that it consists 
with the design oi God, that -we should enjoy 
different parts at different times, according to 
the progress we have made, and the path in 
which we are led. Ere the way be ended, we 
shall have found the beauty and utility of all. 
In this persuasion it is, that I do not advise 
any enforced, progressive order in our daily de- 
votional reading, but such a selection as feeling 
and preference at the time suggest; dictated, 
as it will be in the honest mind, by the time's 
necessities and need. When the mind is agitat- 
ed and in doubt about the way of salvation, 
which the powerful reasoning of St. Paul, or 
the persuasive arguments of John might possi- 
bly elucidate and set at rest, what but a greater 
distraction would be to me the enjoyments of 
the path I cannot find, or the pictures of its 
blissful termination ? When the heart is full 
of joyful confidence, and wants only to know 
how it may glorify and obey, why must I 
read, instead of the hallowed precepts of the 
sermon on the Mount, the mourning of Job in 
the days of his affliction? Why should the 



64 THE SCRIPTURE 

humbled penitent, and broken spirit, waiting 
one beam of comfort from above, be set to read 
threatenings of God on his obdurate enemies ; 
while the heart, as yet untouched with sorrow 
and quite strange to tears, finds nothing in the 
day's portion but the breathings of despair, 
and the promises of heaven to the afflicted ? 
The unfitness of such a division of our daily 
portion is quite obvious. Yet this must be per- 
petually the case, if we are to read chapter 
after chapter, in regular order as they stand, 
instead of selecting what seems to us immedi- 
ately desirable. 

Perhaps it may appear that I am assuming 
more knowledge of the heart and its occasions, 
than the young and inexperienced in religion 
are likely to have attained, when I thus advise 
them to select their own medicine, their own 
food. Certainly I am supposing the heart to be 
honest in pursuit of its own good, and to have 
carefully examined itself, as I have before ad- 
vised, and define to itself the particular object 
of the day's reading. It does not appear to 
me that this is more impossible to the young 
than to the experienced Christian. A thorough 
knowledge of the heart, with all its dark and 
deceitful mazes, is indeed the result of long 
experience, and never will be acquired perfectly, 



reader's guide. 65 

till the mortal shall have put on immortality. 
But to detect the present symptoms of the oc- 
cult disease, the present craving of the un sated 
appetite, needs but reflection, and an honest 
purpose, with such guidance from above as may 
ever be expected to attend it. 

When the part of Scripture has been deter- 
mined on, whatever strangeness there may 
seem in the remark, I am decidedly of opinion 
that we had better read little than much. Can 
we read too much Scripture? By no means. 
Let us read it ten times a day, or all day, if 
inclination suggest it, and we have a good pur- 
pose in view in doing so. But I am persuaded 
that it is better to read a little at a time, to read 
that little again and again, pause upon it, con- 
sider it, and carry it away upon the mind, than 
to pass from subject to subject, chapter to chap- 
ter, and thus not concentrate the thoughts on 
any passage in particular. I can imagine cases 
in which a single verse w 7 ould be a better exer- 
cise of devotional study, than even one whole 
chapter. But I would count neither verses nor 
chapters. A better measurement will suggest 
itself, if the heart be really interested. You do 
not come to read — you come to seek, to inquire, 
to enjoy, Pursue your purpose, and it will di 
rect you where to stop. The reason I say it 
6* 



66 THE SCRIPTURE 

should be little is this. The passage that 
strikes you, that seems to suit your need, should 
be studied, contemplated, digested — not read. 
It should be returned to a second time, a third 
time, or a fourth. Its beauty will grow with every 
fresh perusal — its value will be enhanced at 
every retrospect — new meanings, new blessings 
will grow up in it, while your mind rests upon 
the words. At every sentence you should 
pause to consider not only its intrinsic meaning, 
but its application to yourself, to your circum- 
stances and desires. Very often a particular 
sentence or expression will give rise to a train 
of reflection, that will carry you far, and hold 
you long in meditation, but should by no means 
be checked or arrested. If it have excited 
doubts, wait to examine them — if joy, wait to 
indulge it — if any other sensation, do not be 
in haste to get rid of it by reading on, but let 
the mind have time to realize and mature its 
impressions ; that so they may remain the com- 
fort, the warning, or the guide of the ensuing 
day. The habitual reading will thus be rather 
the consideration than the perusal of a portion 
of Scripture ; and I do not hesitate to say, that 
any mind really thus intently set, would very 
soon have had enough, as much as it could 
bear. Some words of deepest import would 



reader's guide 67 

very soon seize upon us, and forbid all further 
progress — some deep feeling would engross our 
powers, and bear the heart to heaven, and leave 
no freedom to pursue the text. The eye would 
not be satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with 
hearing the beautiful secrets of this word divine, 
and both remain suspended on the hallowed 
page. Fiction has told us of one who, at the 
sight of her own image in the stream, stood 
transfixed with w T onder and admiration. With 
an emotion not unlike, though different in the 
effect, the Christian stands frequently amazed 
to find the deepest secrets of his bosom reflect- 
ed, as it were, in the pages of Holy Writ — 
every thought and feeling portrayed, repeated, 
answered, explained, and accounted for. " This 
answer is to my question, this thought is mine, 
this character is me" — thus whispers the spirit 
to itself as it proceeds ; realizing, owning, 
claiming everything, as the intimate acquaint- 
ance of the bosom. They who have not felt 
this at all, have not begun to understand the 
Bible. They by whom much of it is as yet 
unclaimed, though to its plainer parts the heart 
responds, have only to go on. Every day will 
disclose a new assimilation, realize a new truth, 
give meaning to some dark passage ; as every 
day adds to their experience, and deepens their 



68 THE SCRIPTURE 

knowledge of themselves. And as long as life 
endures, there will be more discoveries to make, 
more truths to be acknowledged, and more 
similitudes to be verified. 

But there is one thing of first importance in 
our perusal of Scripture, which as yet I have 
not named ; an added reason, as it appears to 
me, why the portion at each time should be 
small, and the progress through it deliberate. 
I have said, that when we read, we should put 
the mind, if not the body also, in a position of 
prayer. But this is not enough. Actual, fer- 
vent prayer must accompany our reading. 
There are many and powerful reasons why 
this should be, and why our reading can 
scarcely be efficacious without it ; arising from 
our ignorance, helplessness, and corruption. 
Paul had regard to this necessity of our con- 
dition, when he told us to pray without ceasing. 
He knew that in the most ordinary occupations 
of life, we could not go on securely or success- 
fully without perpetual reference and appeal to 
heaven ; and as he saw no moment of sus- 
pension to our need, so he would have none to 
our prayers. If this be true in the occupations 
of our secular estate, much more it is true in an 
employment that immediately concerns our 



reader's guide. 69 

spiritual and eternal welfare, an occupation so 
serious and important as that we speak of. 

First, w 7 e cannot understand the text without 
divine assistance. Sin has besotted our intel- 
lect, and where the things of God are concern- 
ed, bereft us of all natural understanding". 
We can apprehend nothing without help. 
Then, if we do understand the word, and ap- 
prehend the meaning, it is of no use to us — we 
cannot fulfil its precepts, grow better by its in- 
fluence, be comforted by its promises, or take 
possession of its treasures, unless God inter- 
pose his power to enable us. Incessant, mo- 
mentary appeal, therefore, should be made to 
Heaven as we proceed. We have understood 
ourselves to be come more immediately into 
his presence — we have called upon him to be 
a party, as it were, to our study of his word — 
he is at hand to answer and to hear. His gra- 
cious attention is fixed on the secret movements 
of our heart. There is no need to use words — 
that might interrupt our meditative reading — 
the passing thought, the hasty aspiration, is 
sufficient. O God. grant me this ! make me 
this ! be this to me ! confirm, avert, prevent, 
direct, bestow ! — assents, confessions, praises — 
All these, with the rapidity of thought, have to 
pass between the soul and God, while the eye 



70 THE SCRIPTURE 

peruses, and the spirit meditates his word. I 
know not whether those who complain of so 
little benefit derived from their periodical read- 
ing, and so little enjoyment in it, have been 
in the habit of neglecting this necessary accom- 
paniment of prayer ; but I am persuaded, no 
great measure of profit can result to us without 
it, however diligent our application to the text. 
The half of the Bible, indeed, or a great part 
of it, are the words of prayer ; addresses, in 
one form or another, to its divine author. How 
are these to be perused, but with a praying 
spirit ? They are not the prayers of Moses, of 
David, of Paul, preserved for our information. 
They are the cries of every conscious sinner — 
the wants of every child of humanity — the de- 
sires of every heart that has been awakened by 
the same spirit of grace that animated the 
bosom of Moses, Paul, and David. They 
should be read in the manner of addresses from 
ourselves to God, with a deep Amen of a re- 
sponding heart. The remainder of the text is 
narrative, doctrine, or counsel — a personal con- 
cern to us, every word of it. It is not for 
Joseph's sake, or Hezekiah's, that the narrative 
of their lives is preserved ; but for the glory of 
God, and the instruction of every member of 
his church, till all be perfected in him. They 



READER ? S GUIDE. 71 

are useless to us as our nursery legends, unless 
we so apply them ; and if we do, we must at 
every moment feel the interference of Heaven 
necessary. In their. sufferings we see our dan- 
gers, in their sins we see our corruptions, in 
their conduct our duties, and in their triumph 
our exalted hopes. How can we proceed on 
such a path without resting on God as we 
advance ; without stopping every moment to 
be sure that he is with us, to guide, protect, 
and encourage us ? I am inclined to think the 
heart that can read the Bible at any time with- 
out accompanying prayer, has yet but very 
little depth of spiritual affections nor much of 
earnestness in Divine things. But if any have 
this habit, and find no impulsive necessity to 
devotion while they read, I would advise them 
by every effort to induce it. I would advise 
them to abstain from, and altogether forbid 
themselves the reading of chapter after chapter, 
story after story ; as they would read any 
other book, to know what people said and did 
some hundred years ago, without any such 
deep-felt concern as must force their hearts to 
prayer. It can but confirm the spirit's stupor. 
Instead of it, let them task themselves, if at first 
it must be a task, to this meditative, prayerful 
reading of small portions of the Scriptures 



72 THE SCRIPTURE 

daily ; till their insensible and careless bosoms 
shall be by degrees accustomed to feel and 
to desire while they read. 

It is my intention, in the .ensuing Sections, to 
offer some assistance to the inexperienced in 
this manner of perusing the different parts of 
the Bible : a plan, however, which I pursue 
with much doubtfulness ; while I see the pur- 
pose to be useful, feeling in no way assured that 
I can usefully accomplish it. 



SECTION SIXTH. 

THE READING OF THE HISTORIC SCRIPTURES. 

It is when our minds are more particularly 
in search of knowledge we shall feel disposed 
to turn to the historic parts of the Old Testa- 
ment. Most necessary indeed they are. to en- 
lighten our understanding, and clear away the* 
mystery in which we find ourselves enveloped, 
on first aw^aking from the stupor of thoughtless- 
ness and indifference. And not at first only. 
To the end of time we continue to be at inter- 
vals arrested and astounded at the contradic- 
tions and incongruities that are within us and 
around us ; and are fain to have recourse to the 
divine explanation of man's first fall and diso- 
bedience, its circumstances and effects with all 
the after-haps of this bad beginning ; and the 
way and the purpose in which the world has 
been since prevented from becoming a consistent 
whole of wickedness and misery. The progress 
of God's mercy and man's iniquity, those two 
great sources of seeming confusion — for it is con- 
fusion only to our imperfect vision — can alone 
7 



74 THE SCRIPTURE 

explain the mystery that involves the character 
and the fate of man. And with the habit some 
of us have of forgetting, in our estimate of 
things, the fact of man's entire corruption and 
departure from the presence of God, calculating, 
reasoning, and feeling as if no such thing had 
been the case, it appears to me that a frequent 
reference to the first chapters of Genesis can be 
no unprofitable reading ; especially when the 
mind is excited by a sort of curiosity about our 
condition, or, it may be, of doubt as to the just- 
ness of God's dealings with us. The apostles 
in their discourses often found it necessary to 
refer to the beginning, in order to understand 
the issue. 

Also, it is very useful to meditate these nar- 
rative passages, when we need to be reminded 
— and what do we need oftener ? to whom this 
aged world of ours belongs ; who governs it, 
and takes account of all that passes in it. 
That man rules in the world, and God has for- 
gotten it, is the habit of thinking of more minds 
than suspect themselves of it. The frequent 
repetitions of " The Lord said"— " The Lord 
commanded T ' The Lord caused"— while they 
afford the sweetest consolation and assurance 
to the pious mind, delighted to see God in every- 
thing, may serve as a reminding and a warn- 



reader's guide. 75 

ing to those who are in the habit of settling 
and arranging their worldly affairs without 
him — as if they might — as if they could. For 
this purpose of calling to mind the immediate 
observation and interference of God with the 
affairs of his people, the small things as well 
as great things that concern them, we can 
scarcely open the historic Scriptures in the 
wrong place. If we but find the name of an 
individual, and go on to see what is narrated 
of him, with due reflection, we shall see him 
the subject of supernal power, impelled or 
prevented, overlooked and disposed of at every 
step ; and reflection passing from him upon 
ourselves, we shall be left with no more hope 
of escaping the interference of Heaven, than of 
fear to look for it in vain. 

Another occasion in which the narrative part 
of the Old Testament is peculiarly useful, is 
when the mind is under a sort of rebellious dis 
belief, or at least a disturbed assent, as to the 
actual punishment of sin according to the 
threats denounced against it. Tender and 
sensitive minds, not fully cognizant as yet of 
the real nature of sin, and misled by feeling to 
see more beauty in one attribute of God than 
in another, are peculiarly liable to this disturb- 
ance of their faith. They find it very difficult 



76 



THE SCRIPTURE 



to believe that God will fulfil his threats upon 
the wicked and impenitent. Now, however 
amiable may be the feeling in which this doubt 
originates, it is a measure of infidelity in the 
positive declarations of God ; and calculated to 
lessen the horror and the dread of sin. It must 
by all means be repressed : and when the mind 
is agitated by such doubts, we cannot do better 
than refer to the narrative of ancient times, to 
learn whether God is or is not a God of ven- 
geance, exercising fearful mastery over those 
that oppose him. However fastidious taste or 
affected sensibility may take offence at the hor- 
rors recorded in the Old Testament, there they 
are— and it was God himself who placed them 
there— and they are there for our perusal and 
instruction. They are to confirm to us by his 
actions the verity of his words ; that we may 
cease to set our poor conceptions of mercy and 
humanity against his positive declarations, and 
be convinced of what his wrath will do, by 
what it has done. Need I point out the places ? 
The indiscriminate vengeance of the flood— the 
destruction, too partial, as we might think, of 
the cities of the plain, not more corrupt perhaps 
than others — the punishment of Kora — the 
murders of Makkedah— the fate of individuals, 
of Jezebel, of Sisera, and of Nebuchadnezzar. 



reader's guide. 77 

As we read them, does not the heart grow con- 
founded within us at the weakness of its own 
suggestions, appalled at the certainty of God's 
vengeance, ashamed at the disturbance of our 
faith, and confirmed in hatred to the sin that 
can provoke, and, as it were, compel from hand 
benign such bitter strokes of vengeance ? 

Another, and most essential purpose to which 
we can apply the biography of the Old 
Testament, is that which we perpetually need, 
perpetually demand — example. The connec- 
tion between conduct and its effects, between 
vice and misery, piety and blessedness, are 
among those secrets of the Almighty which he 
has, in a great measure, veiled from observation, 
amid the seeming disorder of existing things. 
Folly seems to gather of the tree she plants 
not, while wisdom comes short of her harvest. 
The path of rectitude seems to lead to evil, and 
the way of evil to success. In contemplation 
of these things, the spirit becomes sometimes 
so mazed and bewildered among the apparent 
opposition between actions and their results, it 
can no ufore perceive the path of wisdom — it 
takes the right timidly, or the wrong from ex- 
pediency, and waits doubtfully and uncertainly 
the issue of its choice. God, for reasons that 
his wisdom knows, permits these false seemings 
7* 



78 THE SCRIPTURE 

to remain. No man knows the whole of an- 
other's fate, the actual measure of another's 
good and ill ; and no man, till he reaches eter- 
nity, can know the actual results of his own 
actions, or his own destiny. But what we can- 
not find in living testimony, that the child of 
God may never want a guide, a warning, or an 
encouragement, has been most amply provided 
in these hallowed pages. Characters of every 
description have been portrayed, and placed in 
every variety of circumstances. The secrets 
of hearts, as God alone beheld them, have been 
laid open. Their motives, and the conduct 
they produced, are at once disclosed, together 
with the divine judgment of them, and all the 
consequent results of good and evil. And in 
these we behold a beautiful consistency of truth, 
which doubtless we should behold in the fate 
of every individual in existence, could we 
know of them all that the divine biographer 
discloses. It should be enough that we behold 
it here, to make us believe it everywhere. Here 
is no confusion, no uncertainty — no gain by 
folly, no ultimate loss by wisdom— no piety un- 
rewarded, nor sin unpunished. And this, be it 
remembered, is the only perfect biography that 
has been or can be written. When, therefore, 
we need to be instructed how to act, warned 



reader's guide. 79 

against the wrong, and encouraged to the right, 
we shall find in the narratives of the Old Testa- 
ment a study of exhaustless beauty and utility. 
We may make choice of the character that 
seems to come nearest to our own, or to have 
stood in circumstances the nearest to the posi- 
tion in which we find ourselves. We may 
compare their expressions and the sayings of 
their hearts, with the conscious emotions of our 
own. We may observe how they decided under 
similar difficulties, how they felt under similar 
temptations, or how they were rescued from 
similar embarrassments. And we may find 
in God's judgment upon their character, his 
judgment upon ours : and thus be instructed 
what to pursue and what to shun ; and with 
no small certainty, what to expect — for equal 
are his ways ; obscured, as he has suffered 
them to be for a season, by the inequality of 
ours. Need I mention Abraham, in the various 
trials of his faith, or Joseph and his brethren, 
amidst their changing fortunes, or the alternate 
sinnings and repentings of the chosen people, 
followed ever by their due rewards ? 

There are times when the racked spirit 
seems beyond the reach of abstract argument, 
and sinking beneath its sorrows or its fears, is 
too weak to receive comfort from the general 



80 THE SCRIPTURE 

promises of divine assistance and support. 
Whether the Deity can, whether he will, whether 
he does hear the sufferer's prayers, is a doubt 
that at some moments defies all. remonstrance 
and all reasoning to appease it. How inesti-. 
mably valuable at such moments are the simple 
facts of the Bible narrative ! God's word and 
promise ought to supply as ample a certainty 
as any fulfilment of them that can be present- 
ed to us ; but in the actual weakness of our 
faith they do not. There are few, I should 
think, who have made the Bible their resource 
in times of need, bat have found that while the 
heart resisted the comfort proposed by the gen- 
eral promises of divine interference, it has been 
sweetly cheered by the fulfilment of them in 
behalf of others. There can be no impossibili- 
ties in the way of our desires, no dangers on 
our path, greater than he has overcome in an- 
swer to the prayers of his people ; so that 
whenever our hearts are full of desire, but 
doubtful and unexpectant in their aspirations, 
we shall find most holy and suitable reading 
in almost every part of the Historic Scriptures ; 
vhere in plain facts, if w T e believe the words, 
vve see everything realized that God has pro- 
mised or that we can need. Have we not the 
prayers of Moses and of David, of Hezekiah and 



reader's guide. 81 

of the Shunamite, with the answers in word 
and deed returned to them from heaven? 

This I have spoken of the historic books, as 
they are merely narrative, apart from any spi- 
ritual meaning concealed under the facts, and 
from the beautiful morsels of spiritual matter 
dispersed throughout the story. I have consi- 
dered them in that character of history, in 
which they would seem the least suited to our 
moments of private and personal devotion. 
But this is in fact the exclusive character of 
but a small portion of the Bible narrative. Very 
many of the stories convey truths to which they 
make no allusion, and are replete with analo- 
gies which the spiritually instucted mind delights 
to trace in them. When the soul is deeply im- 
bued with the principles of the Gospel, and Jesus 
has become the centre, the beginning, and the 
end of everything, he will be looked for where 
he is not named, and perceived in every part of 
Holy Writ. There is a state of religious 
progress, when this single object of faith and af- 
fection does so possess the soul f that to whatever 
page we turn, whatever narrative we read, it 
speaks or seems to speak to us of Christ. We 
see him in Moses, in Job, in everything. We 
cannot see him or seek for him too much. If 
we apply to Christ some passage that was not 



82 



THE SCRIPTURE 



so meant, we have done no harm ; if we fail to 
see him where he might be found, we have rob- 
bed the passage of its greatest beauty ! But this 
will hardly be the tone of an inexperienced mind ; 
if forced upon us, it might become speculative 
or critical research. This, in our devotional 
reading, we would particularly discourage. 
There are other times. Biblical criticism is by 
no means a forbidden or a useless study : but 
let it be a study; and by no means intrude it- 
self on these moments of devotional reading. 
Let us be satisfied now with the plain sense of 
the passage, as far as a simple mind is capable 
of perceiving it, with such spiritual applications 
as we find ourselves readily able to make, and 
any more recondite and typical sense, that ex- 
perience and previous study may enable us to 
attach to it. So limited are the mental powers 
in our present state, the moment we begin to 
criticise, we cease to feel. 

Hidden and uncertain meanings apart, many 
of the stories of the Old Testament have a 
meaning clearly and strikingly spiritual, and 
bear an analogy, too evident to be overlooked by 
the plainest understanding, to the plan of sal- 
vation exhibited in the Gospel. Such is the 
trial of Abraham's faith — such the breathings 
of the royal Psalmist — and such, most striking- 



reader's guide. 



83 



ly, the whole history of God's chosen people; 
every circumstance of which the experienced 
believer finds to be realized in his own rescue 
from the bondage of iniquity, and subsequent 
passage through the wilderness of life. On 
this account certain chapters and passages of 
the Pentateuch are, and ever will be, a fa- 
vourite resource to the tried and trusting Chris- 
tian ; and it is desirable they should be so to 
the more bold and careless ; lest seeming to 
travel towards the promised land, they too 
perish in the wilderness. I would advise a 
frequent reference to the history cf Israel, 
when the mind feels disposed to it, with a di- 
rect application of their hopes and fears, their 
dangers and encouragements, the warnings, 
judgments, promises, and manifestations of 
God towards them, to our spiritual travel to- 
wards the eternal Canaan. There is no doubt 
that it was so intended. The same God who 
separated them from a corrupt world, has sepa- 
rated us, if indeed we are travelling heaven- 
ward ; the same temptations, sins, and dangers 
are upon our path ; and the same supernal 
interference, unseen but not unfelt, must guide 
us through them. 

Meantime, there are but few parts of the his- 
toric books that are purely narrative. Through 



84 THE SCRIPTURE 

out them are distributed single verses, passa- 
ges, or even whole chapters, of a spiritual, de- 
votional, or didactic character. And well 
indeed will these repay us for the search ; till 
we are so far familiar to the text, as to know im- 
mediately where to turn to them. How many 
moments are there when the holy aspiratiorts 
of the Patriarchs will suit the present emotions 
of our bosoms — when the remonstrance of God 
with his people will reach our conscience, or 
his injunctions to them fix our wavering con- 
duct ; separating them entirely from the histo- 
ry in which they occur. Without attempting 
to point out the single verses and smaller pas- 
sages of this kind, which beautify the nana- 
tives throughout, I must mention as examples 
the divine Song of Moses after the passage of 
the Red Sea ; innumerable parts of the pious 
exhortation to the Israelites, with the summa- 
ry of God's mercies and his laws contained in 
the first twelve chapters of Deuteronomy ; and 
again his song and departing blessing at the 
close of the same book. These are of no pri- 
vate concernment. They have as much to do 
with the children of God now, as they had then ; 
and if we indeed be his children, may with ad- 
vantage be studied as if spoken to ourselves ; 
since they must now r , as then, be accepted and 



reader's guide. 85 

obeyed. But not less valuable than the words 
of Moses, are the words of Samuel, and the 
words of David or of Hezekiah or of Daniel, or 
the words of God addressed to them by himself, 
or by his messengers, the prophets. 

Let in search out these passages from the 
mass of the historic Scriptures, and make our- 
selves familiar with the places in which they 
are to be found, that we may turn to them, 
when we think they will suit our occasions. If 
our memory is not sufficient for the purpose, it 
might not be unserviceable to have some sort 
of memoranda of our own making to assist us. 
I am not prepared to say how this should be 
done ; but I have often felt the want of one, 
from insufficient memory as to books and chap- 
ters, occasioning at least a loss of time, in refer- 
ring to suitable portions, even when knowing 
what portions would suit if I could find them. 

When we have selected a passage, we must 
endeavour to read it for ourselves — as our own 
concern. It is no more Joseph or Moses who 
speaks or is spoken to. It is God's address to 
us, or ours to him. It is truth, not of somebody 
who lived five thousand years ago, but of out- 
selves at the present moment. It is not some- 
thing to be believed, admired, and let pass ; but 
something to be received into the heart, to live 



86 THE SCRIPTURE 

upon and act upon ; to make us wiser, holier, 
and happier — one of these or all. For this pur- 
pose, the original speakers and actors need not 
be even remembered. We are alone in our 
closets with God. We are in devotion before 
him. This is a portion of his word. What 
have we individually to do with it? What 
does it say to us? In what manner does it 
reach our case ? What use can we make of it, 
or what s;ood derive from it ? As the verses 
succeed each other, if they be prayer, let us pray 
with them for ourselves — if they be confession, 
let us open our bosoms as we read them, to the 
scrutiny of Him who is present ; if they be pre- 
cepts, let us pause, and with retrospective 
care, examine our own conduct by them ; if they 
be counsels, let us treasure them in memory, 
with holy resolution to be led by them here- 
after ; and so on with whatever may occur. It 
is likely that verses of all these and various 
other characters will occur successively. Let 
us pause upon each, that we may rightly divide 
them to their uses ; and still with the heart 
ascending" in perpetual aspiration to heaven to 
make them effectual to those uses ; for we can 
do nothing without assistance thence — neither 
desire, nor confess, nor repent, nor resolve, nor 
become wiser, or holier, or happier. 



SECTION SEVENTH. 

THE READING OF THE PSALMS. 

A very little experience is sufficient to have 
taught us how much the human heart delights 
in the responses of a sympathizing spirit — un- 
consciously responding to our feelings, in the 
natural expression of its own. This constitutes 
(he charm of poetry, the witchery of romance, 
the dissipating influence of the novel. The 
poetic mind revels in the luxuries of the verse, 
because there it finds its own impassioned feel- 
ings, its deep reflectiveness, the soarings of the 
imagination, and the breathings of its acute 
sensibilities. For the same reason the frivolous 
and dissipated delight in the novel of the day. 
These are their own thoughts, their own emo- 
tions, what they are or what they would be — 
follies they claim kin to, while thinking only to 
laugh at them. The warrior will read of war 
— the loving will read of love — the fashionable 
will read of fashion — and whence is the charm, 
but because the expressions of the book sympa- 
thize with the feelings of the bosom, and the 
writer says what the conscious reader feels ? 



88 THE SCRIPTURE 

Doubtless it is the same sympathy, the same 
responsive utterance of the bosom's secresy. 
which makes the Book of Psalms so inestima- 
ble a treasure to the believer, so constant a 
favourite to the Scripture reader. Not, I ap- 
prehend, to the careless, unawakened reader. 
These holy books have little to do with those 
external things in which the just and the 
unjust are alike partakers : they are no 
recital of exciting facts ; tales that please as 
fiction the heart that never has felt for them as 
truth, though professing, perhaps, to believe 
them. From habit, because they are a part of 
the daily church-service, or because so taught 
from childhood, or other such reason, the Psalms 
are more early familiar to us, and more mecha- 
nically chosen for our quotidian of reading, 
than any other part of Scripture. But we 
would appeal to the thoughtless mind, if for a 
moment it could be induced to think, whether 
they are not of all parts the most useless, the 
most incomprehensible. The poetic beauties 
of the style may indeed be tasted, if we have 
not read ourselves into insensibility of them : 
but that is all. The deadening effect of habit 
is strikingly evinced by the insensibility, the 
absolute unconsciousness with which people 
read from day to day, as a religious duty, 



reader's guide. 89 

Psalms every syllable of which is a falsehood 
upon their lips, or a condemnation in their ear 
— an imprecation, not seldom, on their own 
heads. Such persons I am not addressing 
while I explain the use of the holy book. It 
is impossible to say what part of his word it 
may please God to use for the awakening of 
the insensible ; it may be these, as well as any 
other ; therefore are they not to be prohibited 
to any, nor can we say the reading of them is 
useless. But this is certain — there is not a 
sentence in them that befits the lips of the unre- 
generate, or can be uttered by them with hon- 
esty of heart. If they see in them anything, it 
must be the fearful contrast between what they 
read and what they feel, what they pronounce 
and what they mean. There is something ex- 
tremely awful in the daily systematic reading 
of them under such circumstances. Nothing 
but the most appalling insensibility, the stupe- 
faction as it were of death, could render it pos- 
sible : for it is here no longer the "He said" 
of other men, which we may or may not agree 
with ; neither is it the address of other men to 
us, which may or may not concern us. These 
holy aspirations purport to be the expression of 
the heart that reads them — prayers, desires, 
confessions, sorrows, joys, acknowledgments — 
8* 



90 THE SCRIPTURE 

falsehoods, every one of them, from the lips of 
those who do not love the Lord and serve him. 
It is very fearful. We know not what to say. 
It would be wrong to recommend a discontinu- 
ance of the reading; and it is in vain, I fear, 
to urge a careful comparison during the course 
of it, of the sentiments of our hearts with the 
expressions put into our mouths. We must 
leave, therefore, with this brief allusion, those 
who make a duty of reading every morning 
the Psalms appointed for the day, yet never 
feel — never stop to consider whether they feel 
or not, a single sentiment those Psalms express. 
Well has the Scripture said of itself, that it is a 
savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. 
In other parts of Holy Writ, we have the 
actions of men, their sayings, and the motives 
that instigate these words and actions. In 
the Psalms w T e have more. We have the 
secret breathings of the heart within itself — 
the silent communications of the spirit with 
God, and his with it — the perpetual soliloquy, 
as it were, of the soul, holding close commu- 
nion with itself through every circumstance 
of its passage through time into eternity ; clothed 
at once in all the simplicity of truth, and 
all the exaltation of poetry. It is no wonder if 
to the troubled mind in particular, this is a fa- 



reader's guide. 91 

vourite part of the Bible — the most frequently 
recurred to, and seemingly the most effectual 
to the spirit's consolation. I believe it becomes 
increasingly so, as the believer advances in ex- 
perience and knowledge of himself. I have 
observed already, that to the unregenerate 
heart, its application is impossible ; if read at 
all, it is so from habit, and a superstitious re- 
verence for established forms. To the young 
in religion, doubtless it begins to unfold its trea- 
sure-house of beauty, and should begin to be 
studied ; carefully studied — not read as a daily 
service. If this last has been the practice, and 
has been hitherto performed without any con- 
sciousness of benefit, or any sensible impression 
made upon the mind by the repetition of a 
familiar language, I do not hesitate to advise a 
discontinuance of the practice, and the substi- 
tution of a totally different method of perusal ; 
for the same reasons that I have given respect- 
ing the Scripture in general. The division of 
the Psalms into daily portions was for the pub- 
lic devotion of the church. The adoption of it 
in our private devotion, promises little but to 
render them a formula and a constraint. It is 
like a measured quantity of food, each day 
alike and of a pre-determined kind, to an ever- 
varying and inconstant appetite — the appetite, 



92 THE SCRIPTURE 

not of health, but of sickness — changeful and 
capricious sickness. 

If, as I suspect, the Psalms are to the young 
and inexperienced Christian a dull and uninte- 
resting part of Scripture, because there is no 
chord within that responds to these deeply 
stricken tones of feeling, it would be advisable, 
for the present, to make use of them as a test ; 
not for finding, as by-and-bye we shall do, the 
resemblances between the holy Psalmist's feel- 
ings and our own ; for as yet there is none ; but 
for detecting the differences ; word by word, 
and sentence by sentence, to observe what he 
expresses that we have never felt ; what senti- 
ments that are in total opposition to our own ; 
what blessing speaks of that we have never es- 
timated ; what malediction utters, that, veri- 
fied, would seem to fall upon ourselves. This 
is a reasonable use to make of these writings. 
They contain the finished portrait of the 
believer, as he appears before God— not of 
one but of every one — of Jesus first, and of 
every one after him, who follows in his footsteps. 
Doubtless they were so intended of God. And 
they become thus a picture from which to copy, 
an exemplar by which to try ourselves, to prove 
whether we are and what we want of being, 
what it is necessary that before God we be- 



READERS GUIDE. 



93 



come. To illustrate what I mean I will make 
use of the first Psalm, because it is the first, 
and because it is short, though others may con- 
tain more. x 
'• Blessed is the man that walketh not in the 
counsel of the ungodly, nor standethin the way 
of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scorn- 
ful." But stay ; ere I proceed with my reading, 
is this first assertion true ? Of course it is, if 
David was inspired to write it, and these are the 
words of God. But of what use is it to me that 
they be true, and that I read them daily, un- 
less I believe them ? Do I think so ? The 
way to know this is to examine what passes 
habitually in my heart respecting the beings 
w 7 ho surround me. Doubtless there are some 
whom I esteem blessed above others, and would 
stand, might I choose, in their position, and di- 
vide portions with them, in some respects, at 
least, of their condition. And there are others 
passing to and fro before me, objects of contempt, 
or at least of pity ; the unenvied, and to my view 
unblessed. Since yesterday, I must have been 
conscious of some such reflections on the con 
dition of others, and probably of having acted 
upon it. I must have taken steps if but in the 
imagination of my heart, or the expressed de- 
sires of my lips, after those objects of my prefer- 



94 THE SCRIPTURE 

ence, to the possession of which the idea of 
blessedness is attached. The associate of sin- 
ners, courted, admired and beloved, but still in 
the ways of sin — the seat of the scorner, an ex- 
alted seat and proud full often, whence he looks 
with contempt and speaks with ridicule of the 
despised truths of God, taking counsel, or likely 
giving it to the learned and the great, but disre- 
garding the simple word of truth : have I admir- 
ed these, and sought to mix with them, and laid 
my plans to follow them, as if they were really 
the blessed upon earth ? Then apparently I 
have a mind but little in unison with the words 
of the Psalmist, and with the mind of God. He 
has opened this beautiful portion of Scripture 
with a blessing ; but when I repeat it after him, 
it is not the language of my heart: I have 
other preferences, and covet other things. 

"But his delight is the law of the Lord ; and 
in his law doth he meditate day and night." 
Am I then one of whom a voice that cannot 
err declares that they are blessed, and subjoins 
the succeeding promises ? That is worth a 
pause to think upon. Delight is the strongest 
term of pleasure ; and sad is the heart indeed, 
that lives from da}- to day without a conscious- 
ness of delight in something. And if there is 
anything in particular our hearts are set upon 



reader's guide. 95 

to delight in it, that thing, whether we will or 
not, whether we forbid it or invite it, will be 
the subject of our meditation ; not content with 
our day thoughts, it will disturb our slumbers, 
and possess our dreams. This I have felt to be 
the case with other things : but has it been ever 
the case with me respecting the things of God. 
all of which may be comprised in what is term- 
ed his law? Is the subject so near my heart, 
that it comes into it the first in the morning ? 
So dear, that it will not go from it till the last 
at night : and if aroused at midnight will come 
back again ? And this not as a loathed spectre 
haunts the conscience to distract it — but be- 
cause the presence and the thought of God are 
my consolation and my joy? 

Then I am blessed — " And he shall be like 
a tree planted by the rivers of water, that 
bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf 
shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall 
prosper." These words are for me. It may 
seem, if I regard my outward circumstances, 
that they are not fulfilled. But the witness of 
God's word is better than the evidence of cir- 
cumstance. The season of the fruit may not 
be come, and the leaf may not yet be put forth. 
But mistrust and anxiety do not become me. 
He of w T hom this Psalm is primarily spoken. 



96 THE SCRIPTURE 

and for his sake transferred to all who bear his 
likeness, was a tree planted long before its fruit 
was borne. What he did for a season did not 
seem to prosper — -rather did it appear that, . 
planted on an ungenial soil, it withered to the 
root and died. Yet is he blessed for ever ; be- 
cause he never walked in fellowship with the 
ungodly, nor had other delight than in his Fa- 
ther's law. And it is true of me, as it was of 
him. If the former verses apply to me, these 
are a pledge to me. I am more blessed already 
than other beings, and yet fairer promises 
remain to be fulfilled. I will not faint nor be 
afraid. 

"The ungodly are not so: but are like the 
chaff which the wind driveth away. There- 
fore the ungodly shall not stand in the judg- 
ment, nor sinners in the congregation of the 
righteous/' Is this anything to me ? I have 
read it in my life hundreds and hundreds of 
times ; and it never struck me with fear, lest 
withered and valueless, like a thing without 
root, the breath of heaven should bear me away 
from earth, and from all the pleasant things I 
have enjoyed in it. And yet I have been un- 
godly and a sinner — Perhaps I still stand under 
the denunciation. It is contrasted with the 
former description— If I am not one, I am the 



reader's guide. 97 

other. If I am in doubt, my heart should go 
up to heaven in prayer ; if assured, in grateful 
adoration. 

" For the Lord knoweth the way of the 
righteous : but the way of the ungodly shall 
perish." Is this good news to me. or bad? 
One it must be. It is the summing up of all ; 
shall I close the book weeping or rejoicing in 
issue. Perhaps I would rather God did not 
know my ways. I would rather him look aside, 
and let me follow my own liking for awhile ; 
and would conceal from him for ever, if it 
might be. the secrets of my heart. Then it is 
no glad news to me that he knoweth my ways, 
and watches my footsteps and directs every 
movement of my heart to the furtherance of 
his own will. His presence is fearful to me, 
his interference is importunate ; I submit to it 
of necessity, but it is no joy to be reminded of 
it. But if the first part of the verse is not for 
me, the other must be. There are but two 
ways — the righteous man's, which is God's, 
and the sinner's, which is his own. The first 
is under eternal guidance, and w T ill lead to eter- 
nity ; the last is the device of mortals, and ends 
with his mortality. 

It is thus that in pausing on the meaning of 
the sacred words, one eye as it were on them, 
9 



98 THE SCRIPTURE 

the other on our own consciousness, what does 
not suit us will convict us ; what finds no sym- 
pathy in our bosoms will bring us to question 
why there is none. Falsehoods on our lips, 
though purest truth from him that wrote them, 
will startle the slumbering conscience as we 
read, and perhaps force an appeal to heaven 
for aid : and thus the bosom which as yet can- 
not taste the beauty, or partake the deep inter- 
est of these breathings of a fervent heart, 
because as yet there is no response of sympa- 
thizing feeling, may be benefited, essentially 
benefited, by the perusal ; if honestly intent on 
being so, and pursuing the search in such tem- 
per of mind as has been before suggested. 

This slight example is given, not as a com- 
ment on the Psalm, or a prescription of the 
train of thought to be pursued, but as an 
illustration of what I mean ; to mark the ob- 
ject likely to result from such manner of read- 
ing, and to prove how utterly incompatible it is 
with the reading by measure and mechanism 
we may have been accustomed to. What 
flights of thought, what pauses of feeling, 
what scrutiny of ourselves and ardent appeals 
to heaven, might have arisen out of the brief 
suggestions we have made ; enough to occupy 
with the matter of these six verses, or perhaps 



reader's guide. 99 

with not half their number, the longest period 
allotted to the devotional exercise. And yet is 
this psalm more limited in meaning than almost 
any other ; the ideas being confined to two— 
the blessedness of the righteous and the brevity 
of the course of ungodliness. We have but to 
cast our eye to the succeeding ones, to see 
what subjects of reflection, of feeling, self-exa- 
mination and devotion, are developed in the 
space of a few verses, sometimes comprised in 

a single one. 

Speaking for those to whom the experimental 
in religion is least available, because of their 
yet small experience in it, and consequently 
the Psalms an unattractive part of Scripture, I 
would urge the attempt thus to meditate, and 
apply, and appropriate them to ourselves ; and 
I have little doubt a new and growing interest 
will be perceived and ultimately enjoyed, by 
many who have hitherto avoided, or read them 
only from a feeling of propriety in doing so. 
To those more advanced it is unnecessary to 
commend a frequent perusal of the Psalms. 
They are the treasure-house of Christian sym- 
pathy. There is not a feeling of sorrow or of 
joy, of sin and helplessness, of holiness and 
triumph, of gentle promise, or of awful warn 
ing, which the sacred poet has left unuttered or 



100 THE SCRIPTURE 

untouched : and I can scarcely hesitate to add, 
there is not a passage in them that will not at 
some period of our existence come home to our 
bosom as the response of its secret utterance, 
at once the voice and the reply of its present 
emotions. It is therefore that the sorrowful 
and deep-feeling spend more hours perhaps over 
the Psalms than any other portion of Scripture. 
If we consider them but as the language of a 
believer speaking forth his experience under the 
immediate inspiration of the Spirit of God — if 
they were the sorrows and the joys, and the 
prayers of David, and in him of every other 
believer whose heart responds to them, they 
were a sufficient treasure. But if we may con- 
sider them, as I believe we may, as the words 
of him of whom David was the type — if the 
tears w T ere the Saviour's tears, the vows the 
Saviour's vows, and the deep- wrought expres- 
sion of human feelings and desires the prophetic 
language of the Saviour's humanity, their value 
to the pious mind is increased above all price. 
This does not, as some have thought, rob us of 
the personal application of the Psalms : rather 
it makes them doubly ours. What we are he 
was — what he is we are to be. Our present 
portion is to follow him, our future recompense 
to be like him. Whatever promise was made 



reader's guide. 101 

to Jesus, whatever sins were acknowledged by 
him. whatever sentiment was expressed by him, 
his people are to be partakers of: and it is fit 
his language should become their language. 
Sin he had not, it is true — but he had it to bear, 
to mourn, and to conquer : and therefore even 
in this, the expressions that become his people, 
became him who was made like them ; and 
the language which discloses the feelings of 
his humanity is the appropriate language of 
every devout believer who follows in his foot- 
steps. I must reserve the subject for another 

section. 

9* 



SECTION EIGHTH. 

THE READING OF THE PSALMS CONTINUED. 

I closed my last observations with an inti- 
mation that the Psalms may be considered as 
the language of the Saviour in his humanity ; 
under the influence, as he certainly was, of hu- 
man passion and affection ; and though not in 
the commission, certainly under the severest 
imputation of sin. My readers are aware, no 
doubt, that this is an interpretation of the Psalms 
only partially admitted. I suggest it, therefore, 
without asserting it, meaning to avoid all criti- 
cal discussion. Nor does it materially affect 
the subject I am treating. The reader who 
can so consider them, is, I believe, in no danger 
from the mistake, if it should be one ; but rather 
may be benefited in his use of the Psalms, by 
the influence of such a belief on the heart. 
Jesus is the object of our imitation, our only 
perfect and sufficient example ; in the charac- 
ter of his manhood, of course — for as God we 
cannot imitate him, however we may hereafter 
see him as he is, and be made like to his glori- 



104 THE SCRIPTURE 

fied humanity. In the Gospel narrative we 
have the life and conversation of that holy Be- 
ing, the lustre of divinity put off, and the weeds 
of humanity about him. The mind that would 
be pure as he is pure, holy as he is holy, looks 
with delight upon his actions, catches with de- 
light at his words, and endeavours by them to 
form his conduct and conversation in the com- 
mon paths of life. But gladly would we have 
more. Fain would we know what passed in 
the Saviour's bosom when he retired from the 
crowd to some lowly dwelling, to think over the 
incidents of the day — of the insults heaped up- 
on his sacred head — the obduracy of his enemies, 
and the retribution prepared for them — the fu- 
ture destiny of those who engrossed his heart's 
affections, and were to share his sorrows — and 
withal, of that task which was upon him, that 
cup so bitter which could not pass away, unless 
he drank it. Neither desire we this in idle cu- 
riosity. We need it for the perfecting of our 
divine model : for it is in the thoughts of 
our hearts and the secret dispositions of our 
minds under like circumstances, trials, fears, 
and provocations, that we are to be conformed 
to his image, as well as comforted by his sym- 
pathy. How delightful then, if we can find in 
these holy effusions the secresy of the heart we 



reader's guide. 105 

desire to penetrate. Thus Jesus felt, thus Jesus 
thought — thus in the privacy of his bosom, and 
in secret with his Father, he poured out his 
sorrows and his high resolves. I would not 
urge on any one this interpretation as necessary ; 
but I name it as delightful ; for if the sympathy 
of a human being be so precious to us, how 
much more the sympathy of him who is our 
Saviour and our God ! And if we be even mis- 
taken in this acceptance of them, and go be- 
yond their meaning in thus keeping the Saviour 
before us as the speaker when we use the Scrip- 
tures for devotional reading, I see not what but 
good can result from the delusion. 

Let that pass, however ; let them be the 
words of David ; they are still not his natural, 
but his inspired words, written by the express 
design of God for our learning and example ; 
and their sympathy may be our consolation, 
and their holiness our ensample still ; next to 
the character of Christ, the example of his ap- 
proved saints is set forth for our imitation, and 
their experience for our encouragement. Brief- 
ly, then, we will look over the Psalms with a 
view to thus making use of them. I am afraid 
our compass will allow us to notice but a few 
of many; and perhaps may pass over what 
may best deserve notice : but I am rather open- 



106 THE SCRIPTURE 

ing a purpose than fulfilling it, suggesting a 
plan, rather than pursuing one. I am far 
from intending to make a commentary, after 
advising the reader not to use any : and what- 
ever remarks I may make on particular passa- 
ges, are not meant for comments on their mean- 
ing, but as hints for the uses that may be made 
of them. ^ • 

Observe the third and fourth Psalms. How 
many are the times we know, when external 
evils compass us about, and every day adds 
something to their pressure ; and another 
comes on what was too much before ; w r hile 
our wasted spirits, perhaps, seem daily less suf- 
ficient for the contest ; and so far from deriving 
help from man, mockery and reproach, sneers 
and insinuations, add poignancy to every shaft 
of sorrow. In the language of these beautiful 
Psalms, so suitable to a sickening, sinking 
spirit, we are bidden to remember the comfort 
we have in other times received from God 
under like trials ; and to derive confidence 
from the remembrance, till, in the contempla- 
tion of if, surrounded by dangers, we can lie 
down in peace. We have the prayer, andthe 
reply to it ; the joy that in spite of sorrow the 
promises of divine help can afford ; and finally 
the sweet conclusion to which the trusting 



reader's guide. 107 

spirit comes — "I will lie down in peace and 
sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell 
in safety.' 7 There are other Psalms to the 
same purpose, even more strongly expressed — 
witness the 71st and 77th. 

The pressure of external ill and the world's 
malice are not the only, nay, nor the severest 
trial of the Christian. For one complaint of 
others he breathes many of himself; and while 
the fierceness of man's wrath but rouses his 
courage, the sense of God's displeasure sinks 
him to the dust. Observe the 6th Psalm. 
The soul cannot be long experienced in reli- 
gion without realizing this sickening of the 
spirit, this anxious waiting for return, this soul- 
consuming misery under the consciousness of 
sin, and the absence of all sensible comfort 
from above, while it anxiously asks. How long? 
Is it no comfort under such painful feelings to 
find thera traced by other hands ? To learn 
that no new evil has befallen us ? Here is the 
contrition, the self-reproach of one who was the 
chosen servant of God — perhaps of him who 
bore the chastening he had not merited, to ap- 
pease the wrath we fear. How like his thought 
to ours ! • These also have sunk thus low — 
these too have seemed abandoned. Yet their 
cry closes with a word of confidence— even of 



108 



THE SCRIPTURE 



triumph — And will not ours ? Is not their God 
our God, as our corruption their corruption? 
While the bosom responds to the deep- wrough* 
expression of suffering, it learns to participate 
in the confidence and triumph that succeed it. 
And thus the heart cheers itself in contempla- 
tion of others' woes ; and while in others' lan- 
guage it pours out its feeling before God. 
seems at length to accept the mourner's confi- 
dence, as a pledge of heaven's mercy to itself. 
Of similar character are the 13th, 22d, and 38th 
Psalms, and many others. 

Much difficulty, and often I believe consider- 
able harassment, has arisen to the mind of the 
pious reader, from those Psalms that make ap- 
peal to the justice of God, and plead innocence 
and uprightness as claims to defence against 
our enemies. Ill such language seems to be- 
come the lips of a sinner, to whom neither God 
nor man can render more evil than he is con- 
scious of deserving. Neither dares the humble, 
self-convicted lip, urge before God the plea of 
merit or the proud challenge of examination, 
after the manner of the 7th Psalm. This diffi- 
culty is removed by the application of the words 
to the Saviour. He had an innocence to plead, 
and compensation to claim for undeserved 
wrong. To no human being besides, as view- 



READER S GUIDE. 109 

*d in himself, can appeals like these belong, or 
the similar ones of the 12th. 26th, &c. There 
seems little doubt, therefore, that they are the 
appeals of the sinless Jesus to his Father's truth 
and justice, to look and behold no iniquity in 
him, and reward him according to his integrity. 
But I cannot think the Psalm that so speaks 
becomes on that account inapplicable to our- 
selves, and loses all meaning on our lips. No 
— as united to him, whatever belongs to Jesus? 
belongs to his people — whatever he pleaded for 
himself, he has left in plea for them. Sinners- 
as we are, the terms upright, righteous, holy, 
are perpetually applied to us by God. Why 7 ' 
Because there is a light in which he so consi- 
ders us ; even the light of redemption, which is 
by the righteousness of Christ, Since he is up- 
right and perfect in righteousness, and has in 
all integrity fulfilled the law, those who are the 
purchase of his blood, have their sin so blotted 
out as to be no more had in remembrance be- 
fore God, and for his sake are accounted right- 
eous before Him. There is a sense also, I am 
persuaded, and a time, in which the believer can 
use for himself these pleas before his Maker, and 
find confidence and comfort in them ; and that 
without the least self-ignorance or pride of 
leart. Why else does the apostle speak of ai 
10 



110 THE SCRIPTURE 

conscience void of offence before God — of walk- 
ing in purity of heart before him ? There are 
expressions used representing the saints in the 
Epistles, full as strong as these of the Psalmist, 
in which so much difficulty appears: yet these 
stand not in opposition to the consciousness of 
sin, deepening ever as the heart advances to- 
wards holiness. They are uttered from a heart 
confident of its own integrity in the faith, of its 
love of holiness and truth. We attempted, in 
a former Section, to describe that pure and 
honest heart with which we should come before 
God to the reading of his word. And if we can 
bring it we are free to plead it with him. Hum- 
bled, contrite and self-abased as the Christian is 
in his own eyes when he lives above the world, 
w r alks in near communion with God, and en- 
deavours in conduct and disposition to grow in- 
to his likeness, there is a testimony of a good 
conscience, a sense of integrity of purpose and 
honesty of heart, which, as he received it of God, 
he knows that God will look upon with appro- 
bation ; and against the false representations 
of man, and the accusations of the evil one, and 
the stings of remaining sin within him, he 
pleads, humbly yet confidently pleads, " Judge 
me, O Lord, according to mine integrity,"— the 
integrity with which he is determined to serve 



reader's guide. Ill 

him in the ways of righteousness and peace. 
Vain were the promises of God to the upright, 
if none could own and none could plead them. 
But, in fact, there is a joyful confidence, a holy 
exultation, the very opposite to presumption, for 
it is the growth of humility in the conscious- 
ness of a believer before God, which those have 
little idea of whose bosoms are distracted with 
a divided choice, their integrity every moment 
put to question by some unholy compromise. 
If therefore these sentences die upon our lips, as 
too venturous a challenge of omniscient. justice, 
let us pause and fix them upon the memory as 
something in the mystery of godliness which we 
have yet to learn. Let us bow our heads over 
them with shame that we cannot utter them ; 
and beseech that Saviour to whom they primari- 
ly belong, to plead them for us at the Father's 
throne, and communicate to us of his own up- 
rightness. 

Know we anything of the language of the 23d 
Psalm ? It has occurred in our reading often — 
it has been commended to oar taste by its 
poetic beauties — bat have our hearts ever really 
responded to its language ? If they have, we 
need not to be told that such moments are the 
happiest of oar existence ; and that in the en- 
joyment of them, the bosom, full of holy con- 



112 THE SCRIPTURE 

fidence and peace, can find no greater pleasure 
than in the perusal of words responding to 
these feelings, and meet to give utterance to 
them before God. If they have not — if terrors 
of death, and consciousness of sin, and anxious 
apprehensiveness of this world's ill, form in our 
bosoms a mournful contrast to this song of con- 
fidence — do not read it, admire it and pass on 
— mark how happy you might be and are not 
— how secure you should be and are not — see 
what unmeet language is ever on your lips, of 
discontent and fearfulncss, contrasted with the 
language of one whose Shepherd is the Lord. 
Well may these heavenly effusions teach us 
what we ought to be, when they fail to reflect 
our feelings as we are. 

It has occurred to many, I believe, to be em- 
barrassed with those passages, such as occur in 
the 7th, 71st, and 118th Psalms, which speak 
of enemies and oppressors, and ask defence from 
the injury intended. And especially to the 
young and happy, who are conscious of no in- 
jury and know no enemies ; or, if they do ; 
have learned otherwise than to speak of them 
with imprecation. But this embarrassment is 
removed if we consider, as we surely may, that 
these enemies so bitterly spoken of are spiritual 
enemies — the evil spirit that watches to destroy 



reader's guide. 113 

— the temptations that everywhere surround 
us — our infirmities, our sins, ourselves — for 
greater enemies have we none, than that self 
we idolize. The youngest, alas ! and the 
most unconscious, are not the least exposed to 
these insidious enemies ; and if they have not 
found them, and have not felt the arrows in 
their bosoms, and the snares about their feet, it 
is because they know not friends from foes, and 
accept as good the evil that destroys them. 
But view these passages aright, and many 
enough are the times when it will suit our 
condition to take the cries of the Psalmist unto 
our lips, that our enemies may be confounded 
and put to confusion, and our feet be rescued 
from their snares. Generally, most generally 
when we hold this language, we shall be pray- 
ing against some detected evil in ourselves — 
some habit or disposition, perhaps, by which 
w r e have been recently led into sin, and ex- 
posed to consequent sorrow — or it may be some 
external circumstance of our condition, that 
proves a temptation to us, and leads us in op- 
position to our better wishes. 

In the Psalms, however, there are passages 

innumerable, as in the fifty-second Psalm, in 

which destruction is invoked on the wicked, and 

their sufferings predicted in accents of triumph. 

10* 



114 THE SCRIPTURE 

This is foreign to our feelings, trembling at the 
punishment we have so narrowly escaped, and 
looking with anxious pity on those who are 
reserved to the misery we are in mercy spared. 
To explain this discrepancy it has been sug- 
gested that the passages are rather prophetic 
than imperative, intimating what shall be to 
the wicked, rather than imploring it. But this 
does not explain the tone of satisfaction and 
triumph with which vengeance is denoun- 
ced. Again, the application of David's language 
to the Saviour has been used to remove the dif- 
ficulty. He, divine and innocent, had a right 
to invoke vengeance on his oppressors, and 
triumph in the future punishment of those who 
now triumph over his despised humanity. But 
such was not the language of the man Jesus 
when he spake of his personal enemies on 
earth — not the swelling of his bosom when he 
wept over the impenitent city that condemn- 
ed him. It is no personal resentment that he 
utters — no wanton and unnecessary vengeance 
he invokes — as if he, or his people who follow 
him, could have pleasure in the death of him 
that dieth. Still there is a sense in which the 
servants of God may and do desire the destruc-. 
tion of the wicked, and must eventually rejoice 
in it. As the enemies of all we love and long 



reader's guide. 115 

for, of God and man, of holiness and peace, the 
disturbers of his government, the preventers, 
till their cup of wrath be full, of the Saviour's 
reign, and consequently of the consummation 
of our hopes, their utter and final extermination 
from the earth is our most legitimate and ne- 
cessary desire, and has been always enjoined 
as a part of our petitions to the Almighty. 
And doubtless these petitions, repeated here so 
often and with so much seeming bitterness, are 
against the wicked, not as our enemies, but as 
the enemies of God ; uttered in the spirit of 
holiness and justice, not of resentment and re- 
crimination. If we examine the expressions, 
we shall always find them coupled with the 
sufferings occasioned to the innocent, or the 
insults offered to God. While we discourage 
any feeling of averseness towards these passa- 
ges as if w T e would be wiser and more humane 
than he who wrote them, it may be desirable, 
when we ma.ke use of them as our own, to be 
careful of the character of our feelings towards 
the wicked, and the object we have in invok- 
ing vengeance, that they be simply in unison 
with the declared purpose and holy will of 
God, unmixed with any selfish and malignant 
feeling. This caution observed, there is little 
reason, however much of seeming sensibility 



116 THE SCRIPTURE 

there may be, in shrinking from the use of such 
passages. The destruction of our country's 
foes is considered matter of congratulation — 
we consider it no wrong to pray for the defeat 
of the enemy and the oppressor of our house. 
Is it the enemy of God alone against whom we 
ma}' desire and invoke no vengeance ? 

Few things, I believe, habitually give more 
disturbance to our minds than the success and 
prosperity of the ungodly. Its natural tendency 
is to shake our confidence in the sovereignty of 
God, and discontent us with our choice of Him, 
while all his gifts and favours seem to be to his 
enemies. And even in better feelings, there is 
a holy indignation in the bosom against the 
successes of iniquity, that if a less culpable, is 
by no means a less painful emotion ; and, in 
comparing our lot with others, sickening dis- 
couragement will come into the heart in spite 
of every effort to forbid it. Many of the Psalms 
speak beautifully to these feelings : when we 
are under the influence of them, we cannot find 
better medicine than in the 37th the 49th, and 
many others. The exquisitely drawn com- 
parison between the prosperity of the wicked 
and the righteous man's adversity, their con- 
trasted destiny and its hastening termination, 
are lessons meet for either; but fraught with 



reader's guide. 117 

sweetest consolations to those that wait upon 
the Lord. Nor do I know where better we can 
turn, at those moments of hesitation, when the 
yet unstable mind is divided between the invi- 
tations of the world and the offers of religion, 
wishing to choose well for itself, but overborne 
by the enticements of present pleasure. 

It is remarkable that to a world of sorrow, 
and to bosoms prone to it as the sparks fly up- 
ward, these songs are dictated full half of joy. 
Was this necessary ? Perhaps our hearts have 
never told us so. At a period of life in which 
we have been more conversant with joy than 
sorrow, it may never have suggested itself to us 
that we want the Bible's help to express the 
gladness of our hearts, and find sympathy for 
their overflow of joy. Perhaps — I speak it with 
some certainty — there are days when the hour 
of Scripture reading overtakes us in the flush of 
enjoyment, the breast still heaving with un sub- 
sided pleasure, or panting for anticipated mirth. 
The Bible is in our hands, but what shall we 
do? We would read — but these strains of 
mournful import jar upon the ear, and the 
heart's lightness mocks the lip as it attempts to 
sound the deep and solemn tones. Well — 
Heaven has provided even for this. " Are any 
glad, let them sing Psalms.'' Let us bring our 



118 



THE SCRIPTURE 



gladness to the Psalmist's pseons of joy, and try 
if we can find sympathy between them. Here 
is mention enough of joy. Observe the 92d 
Psalm, the 100th, the 103d, the 105th. Earth, 
air, and seas, are called upon to help the song, 
lest man should not sing it loud enough. The 
heart of the royal mourner, so lately broken 
with sorrow, seems now as if it would speak 
again with fulness of gratitude and joy. What- 
ever be the excitation of our spirits at the mo- 
ment of entering on the devotional exercise, if 
it be of source legitimate, we may expend it in 
praises to Him who is the source, the object, 
and the sanctifier of our rejoicing. The ruffled 
mind will calm itself as it pours its feelings 
forth, and find in the exercise itself the compo- 
sure it seems necessary to bring to it. If we 
cannot do this — if the Psalmist's joys are as dis- 
cordant with our feelings as his sorrows — if 
God has so little to do with our delights, we 
hesitate to mix his name with them, even so 
much as to give him thanks — if our timbrel is 
sounded, and our pleasant harp is strung to 
drown his name, and not to sound it; and the 
very subjects of the Psalmist's gladness would 
shame our past, or cloud our coming pleasure 
— and as we try to read, there is more disso- 
nance in it than even might be in his strains of 



reader's guide. 119 

anguish — What are we to think of it ? These 
were the Saviour's joys — the only ones his hu- 
manity ever tasted. These were the royal poet's 
pleasures — the only ones he has expressed. 
Nay, this holy book has no word of sympathy 
throughout for any other. Other rejoicing it has 
named indeed, but not in terms that will suit 
our present feeling. What are we to do? 
Must we close the book, confess there is no uni- 
son between it and us, and wait a fitter season ? 
I would advise rather, that we unclose our bo- 
soms by the side of it ; and before God, and be- 
fore our unstifled conscience, examine and com- 
pare them, and find wherein they differ. The 
source of David's joy was the memory of God's 
benefits — in ours, perhaps, he was forgotten. 
The subject of David's gladness was his deli- 
verance from sin — ours, perhaps, was the indul- 
gence of it. David's harp played for victory, 
where we have fought among the vanquished. 
I cannot trace the comparison through — at the 
best, perhaps, while in all the Psalmist's pleas- 
ures God was a party- and his name was prais- 
ed, in ours he was neglected and unthanked. 
The want of harmony is no wonder, but also is 
it no light matter. Trace it to the source. As 
you read, consider, and in considering, pray. 
In doing so the mind may become serious ; it 



120 THE SCRIPTURE 

may even become sad ; but the passing sadness 
will tend to heighten and to purify its future 
joys, by bringing them into assimilation with 
the joys of heaven, foretasted upon earth. 

And still 1 seem not to have compassed half 
my subject. I have not alluded to the contem- 
plation of creative power, as exhibited in the 
104th Psalm, so suited to our seasons of tran- 
quil enjoyment : to the picture of God's dealings 
with the Israelites, as contained in the 106th 
and 107th, so exact a recital of his workings in 
the heart, and our own perverse returns : nor 
to those more decidedly prophetic, which will 
indeed be included in our future mention of the 
Prophetic Scriptures. I can only leave what I 
have said as unfinished, and almost disconnect- 
ed suggestions. If the limits of my plan ad- 
mitted, I might ascribe to every Psalm its pecu- 
liar purposes, and the frame of mind to which 
it seems most suitable ; and to every frame have 
commended some passages in particular. But 
this exceeds my present design. I only drop 
the suggestion, and pass on. Let everyone for 
themselves make the choice that seems best for 
the heart at the moment of devotion ; and for 
themselves discover and apply what the chosen 
portion may contain. Be they assured they 
have an interest in all. If there is anything 



reader's guide. 121 

that owns no sympathy with them, nor they 
with it, let them mark it as something yet to 
be attained — if there is anything that revolts 
and offends them, let them mark it as some- 
thing on which they and God are not agreed. 



SECTION NINTH. 

THE READING OF THE PROPHETIC SCRIPTURES. 

A very large proportion of the volume of 
Scripture is decidedly prophetic. We cannot 
peruse any of the pages of this holy book, with- 
out perceiving it is the writing of one to whom 
the past and the present are the same, to-day as 
yesterday, and to-morrow T as to-day. What- 
ever be the immediate subject of the narrative, 
the principal group, as it might be, of the draw- 
ing, all eternity is in the back-ground — the eter- 
nal past, and the eternal future — and our at- 
tention is perpetually called to objects that more 
or less distinctly occupy the distance. To us 
more or less distinctly; not to him who drew 
them. We are in the habit of speaking of things 
future, as uncertain and contingent, depending 
upon something as uncertain as themselves. 
But this is language of our weakness, itself the 
origin of all uncertainty. In reality there is 
none. To the eye of Omniscience on one side 
lies the past, w T ith all its connexion of events, 
the motives that led to them, and the conse- 



124 



THE SCRIPTURE 



quences that resulted from them ; as in a map 
the towns and cities, with the roads and cross- 
roads that connect them — and on the other side 
lies the future, consequences still connected with 
events, and events resulting from intentions, 
yet all as well defined and certain, and like the 
map as well, as that which is already lapsed 
and gone. This appears in every part of the 
Holy Scripture, and distinguishes it from all 
other writings. When the inspired historian 
tells his story of the days gone by, the wars and 
legislations of other ages, he passes from them 
in a moment to those that are to come, and 
thence to them back again, as if all were but 
one picture to his eye. When the inspired 
moralist presents his picture of humanity in its 
existent state, he gives with it the issue of all 
that he portrays, its first origin and ultimate 
result. And what a stamp of divinity is there 
thence upon it ! It is only the stupidity of habit 
that prevents our perceiving the attributes of 
Deity, as it were, present with us while we read, 
and being deeply conscious it is God, not man, 
that speaks to us in these hallowed pages. 

In treating of the Prophetic Scriptures, there- 
fore, I am not alluding exclusively, or in par- 
ticular, to those books we call the Prophets. In 
them much that was once prophetic, is now his- 



reader's guide. 125 

torical ; and that which was warning or promise 
to those to whom it was addressed, stands now as 
a narrative preserved for our example. Such were 
the prophesies of Daniel that immediately con- 
cerned Nebuchadnezzar — the promises of Jere- 
miah for the first restoration of Jerusalem, and the 
chastisement of her enemies — and all those mes- 
sages of heaven, delivered by the prophets or men 
of God as they were called, when they left the 
desert in which they dwelt, to make known in 
the camp or at the court the will of the Al- 
mighty. Of such Scriptures as these I have al- 
ready spoken, as included in the narrative parts 
of the Bible. Beautiful assurances are they, 
that w T hat is still prophetic is no more uncertain 
than that w 7 hich at the time it was spoken 
seemed no less so — now explained and verified, 
and made, in our language, sure — in fact, no 
surer than it w r as at first. 

Exclusively of the prophets, so by distinction 
called, every part of the Bible contains prophe- 
tic Scripture. The Apocalypse almost wholly 
— the Psalms to a very great extent — the Books 
of Moses by detached passages in almost every 
part — the Gospels and Epistles occasionally 
and briefly. To all such portions of Scripture, 
bearing reference to the world's futurity, the 
observations I make on the subject will apply. 
11 



126 THE SCRIPTURE 

If my previous remarks are just, it will im- 
mediately appear how wrong is the notion as- 
sumed by some, that the prophetic parts of the 
Bible are in themselves vague, figurative, un- 
certain, and obscure; calculated not to enlighten, 
but mislead — meaning of course something, but 
of nothing intelligible — consequently rather dan- 
gerous than desirable for our perusal. The world 
has seen, nevertheless, a great portion of the pro- 
phecies fulfilled ; and these have proved neither 
vague, nor figurative, nor obscure ; but so clear, 
on the contrary, and so literal, we consider the 
Jew without excuse, who could not recognize 
in Jesus his foretold Messiah, and in the armies 
that encompassed Jerusalem the predicted 
avengers of iniquity. And observe, whatever 
difference is between the past and future pro- 
phecy, is in us, and not in it. Where, other- 
wise, shall we fix the moment at which that 
which was literal became figurative, vague, and 
indefinite? Have we never sailed upon the 
waters, and looking behind us, seen the waves 
bright and glittering in the sunshine ; and be- 
fore us, and seen them veiled in the deep grey 
of evening ? Did we think the sunshine ter- 
minated exactly where we stood ? It seemed 
so ; but when we had gone farther it seemed 



reader's guide. 127 

so still ; and still the same as we proceeded 
onward. 

Such is our position in the course of divine 
revelation. As it passes, it becomes clear and 
simple to the plainest understanding — that 
which is to come is only obscure, because our 
vision receives not the light that is upon it. 
And by the manner of its past fulfilment we 
may best judge of the manner of fulfilment to 
be expected for what remains. Has it ever 
occurred to us to suppose the Jew was misem- 
ployed who studied the prophecy of his coun- 
try's doom, and read from day to day the mys- 
terious prognostics of his expected king — that 
such study would mislead him, and be to him 
rather dangerous than desirable ? The false- 
ness of such a supposition is instantly apparent. 
And yet there is no difference in the case. The 
Jew of ancient days could have no more to do 
with what has since elapsed, than we with 
what is still future ; nor had he any brighter 
lamp to study it by. He stood in the same posi- 
tion, with respect to the first coming of the 
Messiah, as we with respect to his returning ; 
and might w T ith exactly the same plea have put 
his book aside, and treated the prophetic pages 
as vague, figurative, and unimportant. It is 
probable that the greater number did so ; and 



128 THE SCRIPTURE 

having forgotten or remained ignorant of their 
contents, failed to recognize in Jesus when he 
came the characters of their predicted king. 
Some few we know did otherwise : and by the 
study of prophetic Scripture, prepared them- 
selves to know and welcome Messiah when he 
appeared. 

But while I repel the idea (hat there is any 
part of the Bible which is not written for our 
learning, which is no concern of ours, and may 
with impunity be put aside, I am not going to 
recommend what is commonly called the study 
of prophecy as a part of our devotional reading. 
There are other times : at these I recommend no 
stucjy but of our personal interest in the text 
before us, and of that text as affecting our per- 
sonal religion. It is well for us at other times. 
to hear what those have to say, and read what 
those have written, who have given themselves 
to this study— to compare their words with the 
words of Scripture, and, however new and 
startling they may seem, with humbleness and 
teachableness of spirit to ask of heaven to be 
enlightened on a subject in which we are so 
deeply interested. Though if any will present 
to us the darkness of their interpretation as a 
safer light to walk by than the clear day of 
revelation already manifest and verified, and 



READERS GUIDE. 



129 



entertain us with erudite constructions and pro- 
phetic lore, in preference to the plain words of 
faith and holiness, I believe we had better not 
take them for our guides. And if deep research, 
and critical conjecture, and curious inquiry 
upon these matters will intrude itself upon our 
seasons of devotion, I believe we had better bid 
them away, and find a fitter season to give 
them entertainment. 

By these suggestions I do not exclude the pro- 
phetic parts of the Bible from our daily exer- 
cise. That were to close up a treasure inesti- 
mable and exhaustless ; as applicable to our- 
selves, and our personal interests, necessities and 
feelings, as any part of the Scriptures whatever. 
In applying the words of these books to the spi- 
ritual Israel, the spiritual Jerusalem, their first 
application to God's chosen people, the Jews, 
has by some been lost sight of; and to recover 
it, they have by others been so forcibly taken 
back again, as to deprive the child of God, by 
the redemption of Jesus' blood, of his richest 
store of truth and consolation. But neither was 
necessary. The separation of Abraham and 
his seed from the generations of men to serve 
the one true God, to live under his immediate 
guidance, while to all beside he was unknown, 
and to be called his peculiar people, chosen and 



130 THE SCRIPTURE 

beloved, while to all beside he was a vengeful 
enemy — this peculiar and extraordinary sepa- 
ration was but an emblem from first to last of 
the people since purchased by the Redeemer's 
blood , reclaimed from sin. and separated from a 
world lying in wickedness, to be the adopted 
children of God, to be governed by his laws, led 
by his Spirit, and protected by his power. The 
analogy has in all things been preserved. How- 
ever literally every promise or warning may ap- 
ply to the temporal affairs bf the Jewish people, 
and however far they will be in the future, as 
they have been in the past, literally fulfilled to 
them, they are thence the more, not the less 
certainly applicable, in a spiritual sense, to the 
Church of God in Christ, and personally to 
every individual child of God who is a member 
of it. Whatever is true of the former, is true 
of the latter — whatever is addressed to the for- 
mer, is addressed to the latter also — whatever 
is theirs is ours, of blessing or of promise. 

To illustrate my meaning, I will make use 
of the 35th chapter of Isaiah. It has been for 
many ages the song with which the afflicted 
has beguiled the hours of his affliction, the 
weary pilgrim's chant in all his passage through 
the desert world. The wilderness of the first 
verse, so sad and solitary, has seemed to be his 



reader's guide. 131 

own bosom, and the world over whose promise 
its blighting has extended. The message of 
encouragement in the fourth verse has seemed 
addressed to him in his hours of fearfulness, 
trial, and oppression. The succeeding promises 
were a stay amid the stubborn insensibility of 
men and the corruption of the abandoned 
earth. The eighth verse seemed to describe 
the way of salvation, made plain to the simple 
in the pure Gospel light ; and the concluding 
one, that eternity of unbroken bliss, which 
awaits the redeemed in the mansions of glory. 
But some will say this chapter has another 
meaning. The solitary desert is that land 
once flowing with milk and honey, parched 
now and thirsty, the habitation of the dragon, 
bringing forth weeds and rushes : the Lebanon, 
the Carmel, and the Sharon, are the places lite- 
rally so named : the promises are to the scatter- 
ed, helpless, and oppressed, to the yet blind and 
stubborn people of the house of Israel; the 
highway and the way shall be made hereafter 
for their return to Palestine, and the songs of 
everlasting joy be sung on the heights of Zion. 
I believe they say true. But this need make 
no difference in our devotional use of the chap- 
ter. It means but the more certainly what it 
meant before. If w T e forget this latter applica- 



132 THE SCRIPTURE 

Hon altogether, I am persuaded we do no 
wrong in taking to our bosoms, as the chosen 
of God in Christ, the consolations and promises 
it contains. If we remember it, I am persuad- 
ed that by restoring it to the chosen of God in 
Abraham, we need not be dispossessed and de- 
prived of them. That first temporal election 
and separation was the emblem of the spirit- 
ual ; and the events and circumstances which 
sp miraculously pursued those who were the 
subject of it in their temporal affairs, have their 
exact analogy in the spiritual conduct of those 
who belong to the election and separation in, 
Jesus Christ. We have but to trace their his- 
tory through, comparing it with what we know 
of others and ourselves in spiritual things, to 
perceive the analogy entire ; and by the past 
may be instructed of the future. If our minds 
have been occupied with the construction of these 
Scriptures, and unsatisfied respecting their just 
application, I do not say it is of no consequence 
to know — all truth is of consequence— and it 
were much too proud for man to say that what 
God has written is not necessary to be studied 
or inquired about. But to our devotion it is of 
no consequence ; and to our personal applica- 
tion of the prophetic promises and threats it is 
of no consequence. If our hearts are warmed 



reader's guide. 133 

and exalted iy the interpretation we have re- 
ceived, it is well — let it be present with us, and 
be used to that purpose. But if all we feel 
about it isa yet unsatisfied curiosity, it will but 
interrupt our devotion to entertain the subject 
— let us reserve it for cur hours of study rather, 
and for this time take the Bible as we have 
received it, and fully understand it. There is 
indeed enough. If I have chosen the last chap- 
ter of the Revelations for my devotional reading, 
and I find in the first five verses a description 
of that place where the just shall reign for ever 
— which all that is most lovely and most pleas- 
ing to our senses is made use of to embellish- 
where the curse that has blighted our poor 
world is no more to be found — of which the 
greatest charm of all is that the throne of God 
and of the Lamb shall be in it — while my 
heart throbs with the anticipation of expected 
bliss, and grows careless for the trifles of this 
departing world, and rises in adoration of that 
Being whose face I am to see, and in whose de- 
sired presence I am about to dwell, I need not 
recall my heaven-gone thoughts, and check my 
anticipating joy, and withhold my strains of 
adoration, to determine where that blessed 
abode shall be. Or if, in the 10th and 11th 
verses, I read that the time is at hand — that 
12 



134 THE SCRIPTURE 

He comes quickly — and that at his coming, all 
must be determined to good or ill for ever, and 
to every man be given the portion he has chosen 
— -while my awed spirit returns upon itself to 
ask if it is ready, I need not stay the examina- 
tion till I have satisfied myself if it shall be in 
ten years, or in fifty, or in five hundred. He 
that testifieth of these things saith, Surely I 
come quickly — and if my bosom breathes the 
prompt Amen, it will be too full of its desires, 
and of the gladness of these tidings, to go to 
criticism and controversy upon the manner of 
his appearing. As much as we do know by 
previous study, it is good to bear in mind — it 
may increase our feeling by placing something 
more definite before us — the more we know of 
what God has revealed, the more we shall value 
and enjoy his word — let us despise not know- 
ledge, for it is one of the objects we come to the 
Scripture in search of. But for our devotion 
we know enough, be it in faith and simplicity 
ever so little ; and this is not the time to 
inquire for more, unless by an aspiration to 
heaven to give it when it is necessary. Now 
is the time to make use of what I know, and 
appropriate what I understand. The prophetic 
Scriptures are good for me in sadness, for they 
are full of encouragement — in doubt, for they 



reader's guide. 135 

are full of promise — in carelessness, for they 
are full of warning — in contrition, for they are 
full of mercy — nay, they are good for me in 
every case, for they are full of Jesus. 



SECTION TENTH. 

THE READING OF THE GOSPELS. 

The first read, the first familiar part of Scrip- 
ture to most, of us, I suppose, is the Gospels. 
They form the earliest lessons of infancy, and 
in education are selected as the fittest for our 
years and understanding. Besides that they 
contain the ground-work of our faith, and are 
thence the fittest to be taught us first, they 
seem to be the easiest to comprehend, the soon- 
est compassed — they are a simple narrative of 
facts, and collection of plain precepts — they 
seem to present no subject of difficulty or dis- 
putation — they seem to contain no doctrine to 
cavil over, or darkness to err in. They who 
presume to mistrust some parts of Scripture, af- 
fect to value these, and dispense them freely to 
their children and others, and use them freely 
for themselves. They do well. Would that 
they indeed were valued in proportion as they 
are thus ostensibly preferred. The Gospels thus 
become the first and most familiar portion of 
the Scripture fully known, and, as it appears, 
12* 



138 THE SCRIPTURE 

understood, while much of the holy book re- 
mains yet unstudied and obscure. 

Perhaps this early familiarity is in part the 
reason, that when we begin to think more 
deeply of religion, and search the Scripture 
more seriously, the Gospels offer less frequent 
attraction than some other parts. We think 
we know them. They contain indeed the 
ground-work and first principles of our faith, 
the transactions on which all is founded ; but 
these we think we have learned. The narra- 
tive is beautiful indeed and important, of our 
Saviour's suffering, but it is to us an oft-told 
tale — we think we have mastered it thoroughly. 
Our excited curiosity must have something 
newer — our increased appetite demands some- 
thing stronger — the more explicit doctrines of 
the Epistles, the deeper mysteries of the Pro- 
phets, the stronger feelings of the Psalmist, 
have become more attractive to us. We desire 
to enlighten our understanding and exercise 
our intellect, to clear our confused perceptions, 
to satisfy our doubts and confirm our vacillat- 
ing principles. The food of our infancy, 
wholesome and good, seems yet too plain and 
simple for our years ; and we leave the Gospel 
narrative, not entirely, but in habitual prefer- 
ence, for the less familiar parts of Scripture. 



reader's guide. 139 

God has provided for these feelings, and there- 
tore cannot be supposed to disapprove them. 
Had the Gospels been all that was desirable, 
more had not been written. Had they been all 
his people should study, or delight in, or require, 
they had assuredly been the whole of revela- 
tion. There is a stage in our Christian course 
when the doctrinal parts of Scripture are as 
needful as they are attractive to us, and when 
it would be unwise to blame or to restrain the 
preference. Our understanding does really 
need to be enlightened, our perceptions to be 
cleared, and our weak and vacillating faith to 
be confirmed by the study of other Scriptures. 

But shall I be mistaken if I say, that when 
this is done, we shall end where we began, and 
come back whither we set out — that the Gospel 
narrative contains the last lesson as well as the 
first, the perfecting as w T ell as the beginning of 
our faith? Yes, I am persuaded there is a 
time in our Christian progress, and that no 
undesirable one, in which the Gospels become 
aeain our favourite reading — the very resting 
place of our delight, whence we excurse with 
pleasure into the other Scriptures, but to 
return to these as best and sweetest of them 
all. And it is when the mind has sought out 
and been satisfied of the way of salvation — 



140 THE SCRIPTURE 

when the doctrines of the Gospel are under- 
stood, and the spirit of disputation is put to 
silence. When the soul to its owa conscious- 
ness is saved, has repented, has believed, hae 
obeyed, and been accepted ; and, with the sen- 
tence of acquittal thus sealed, and the gates of 
hell thus closed, and ultimate triumph made 
sure in the Redeemer's pledge, there remains 
only to desire and pursue that other part of 
salvation, the obedience of faith, the elevation 
of the soul from this base world, the sanctifica- 
tion of the heart under the Holy Spirit's influ- 
ence, and the restoration of the image of Christ 
in the bosom of humanity. "Since these 
things are so 77 — it is as if the soul thus com- 
muned with itself — "Since I am redeemed 
from misery and sin, and assigned to bliss and 
holiness — since Jesus lias made sure my inhe- 
ritance for me, and I have no more to do but 
to take possession — -what manner of person 
ought J to be ? How am I to walk in sim- 
plicity before God, as becomes my nobler des- 
tiny ? Which is the directest path to that pos- 
session of holiness and peace ? How shall I 
commend myself to him who so has loved me, 
and conform myself to the likeness to which he 
has redeemed me? "Then shall I be satisfied 
when I awake after his likeness.' n The ques 



reader's guide. 141 

tion, what shall I do to be saved ? has been 
answered ; and now the inquiry is, what shall I 
do who am saved ? There is no answer to this, 
but in the example and the character of Him we 
are to follow and resemble. If the ultimate 
object of satisfaction is to be like him as he is, 
the way to it is to endeavour to be like him as 
he was, when he wore our nature and walked 
our sublunary path. 

This subject of study, the history of Christ's 
humanity, is contained in the Gospels. Other 
Scriptures tell us why he came, whither he is 
gone, and the eternal issues of his work. These 
tell us what he did when he was here. In the 
preceding books, he is the promised Messiah, 
the prophetic King, Creator and God eternal — 
in the subsequent ones, he is the conqueror of 
death and hell, the Redeemer of his people, the 
Judge of all the earth. In these he is the man 
Christ Jesus — subject to like passions with our- 
selves, walking in our streets, sitting at our 
tables, occupied with our duties, and engaged 
in the ordinary intercourse of human life. The 
Gospels are no longer, to the mind thus 
tuned ; the soon-compassed and soon-fathomed 
tale that became their childish understanding, 
and was exhausted and familiarized before 
their riper years. It is the deepest, and the 



142 THE SCRIPTURE 

hardest lesson of the whole, and remains to be 
learned when all beside is compassed. It is no 
more the simple fare on which the hungry only 
feed. It is the feast to which the appetite 
returns, when it has taken to fulness all that is 
offered it elsewhere. It is that of which our im- 
mortality will be the never-ended study, the 
everlasting comment — the life and character 
of Jesus. 

I do not know what assistance I can offer 
for the perusal of the Gospels, or how to speak 
of the frame of mind in which they are most 
desirable. They are as a beautiful picture of 
our best beloved, which we hang up in our 
chamber, that we may see it always. We 
choose for it the most conspicuous place, and we 
seat ourselves so that we may see it best. We 
do not want to be (old when to look at it. O ! 
we know that well enough — our eyes are re- 
verting to it ever. In hours of occupation the 
hasty glance — in times of leisure the silent me- 
ditation. Every line and shadow we have ex- 
amined, and yet are not satisfied with looking, 
and every day find some new beauty in it. 
No occasion comes at any time, when the sight 
of it is unwelcome or indifferent to us. But 
there is another thing we might do. We might 
wish to make a copy of this picture. Then 



reader's guide. 143 

our study of it would become more arduous and 
intense. We should sit hour after hour before 
it, our attention minutely fixed upon its traits. 
Our casual pleasure would be changed into an 
anxious occupation. We should seek occasion 
to pursue it, and return again and again un- 
wearied to the perfecting of our task. The 
frequency then of oar returns would be pro- 
portioned to the difficulty of the undertaking, 
and our eagerness to accomplish it. 

It would be impossible, I think, to define any 
state of mind, for which some part of the Gos- 
pels will not be suitable and appropriate reading. 
Amid the crosses and contumely of an unright- 
eous world, what so reconciling as to read how 
He fared in it whom we aspire to follow ? Amid 
its flatteries and its mirth, what so required a 
caution, as to read that it had no flatteries and 
no mirth for him ? In the depression of repent- 
ed sin, where find better consolation than in 
that act in which sin was made an end of? 
And in its presumptuous carelessness, where a 
warning so tremendous as in the judgment that 
once fell on it ? If ever we doubt of the power 
of God, or of the will of God to save us, where 
can we go to be re-assured, so well as in these 
treasured pages? If at any time the tr^steri- 
ous character of the Deity, and his greatness, 



144 THE SCRIPTURE 

and his distance, and his nature incomprehen- 
sible, appal us and discourage our approach, 
here may we find him in all his characters ma- 
nifest : no longer high, no longer distant, mys- 
terious, incomprehensible ; but brought down 
to the limit of our perceptions ; placed as it were 
within the embrace of our affections in the 
characters of manhood. A thousand things 
more I might particularize. I have already 
said there is a time when our own conduct and 
character, our life and conversation, become 
the subjects of deepest interest to us, and occu- 
py a very large portion of our anxiety. There 
is not a day passes in which w r e are not distress- 
ed by our unlikeness to him we love, and our 
unmeetness for the state to which we are pre- 
ferred. Determined to choose the way of peace 
and holiness, we yet cannot find it ; w r e turn 
hither and thither, try everything, follow after 
everybody, and yet nothing brings us right. 
For this I have particularly commended the 
study of the Gospels, as containing the life and 
character of Jesus Christ. 

Do you say you have no power to copy what 
you find ? You want the divine power of his 
deity, the sinless perfection of his humanity. 
There is no analogy in the case, to suit it to your 
purpose. If we were to set you down before a 



reader's guide. 145 

finished portrait, and bid you take the likeness 
with paper and crayons, you might say you 
could not — you have not materials for the 
work — you have neither colour nor canvass, 
nor anything wherewith to go about it. But 
could you not ? Might you not so copy it, 
that though the exquisite colouring should not 
be there, the finished workmanship should not 
be there, and the inestimable value could not 
be transferred, it should still be so like that 
every one should say it was the same ? 

If I were to particularize in what the cha- 
racter of Jesus can be the model on which to form 
our own, I might say, among other things, in 
the tone of his conversation — in the employ- 
ment of his time— in the objects for which he 
lived — in the temper of mind in which he pur- 
sued them — his manner of receiving the ordi- 
nary occurrences of life, and the use he made of 
them — his manner of feeling for and dealing 
with the beings around him. These are gene- 
ral features ; they include though they may 
not designate the minuter touches — they are an 
outline sketch, but they form the likeness — and 
they may be copied by all those in whom the 
spirit of Jesus dwells. 

For example. I have my time, a part of it 
or the whole, at my disposal — I am not in a 
13 



146 THE SCRIPTURE 

condition that requires manual or mental labour 
for life's necessities, and the claims of domestic 
duty are lightly answered. I am so far of the 
mind of Christ that. I would, if I knew how, 
dispose of it according to my Father's will. 
Well then, how did he dispose of his ? He 
spent little, if any, selfishly. It is emphatically 
said of him, that he went about doing good. If 
he went apart to pray, he came back to com- 
municate — if he retired to the wilderness for a 
season, he returned to the active charities of 
life. He did not wait till suffering and sorrow 
sought him out, or keep his righteous counsel 
till contrition asked for it. It was his constant 
occupation to distribute what he had, and spend 
for the promotion of God's glory, and the alle- 
viation of the condition of humanity, the bound- 
less powers committed to him. Is it because 
mine are less that I cannot do so too? 

Sometimes I am troubled about my general 
conversation, in my family, among my friends, 
and with strangers. I find it is very frivolous, 
very useless, often very mischievous. I am so 
much disgusted at times with the intercourse 
of society, I could resolve to seal my lips in 
silence. I know not how to mend my conver- 
sation — I am not sure that I know what it 
should be — Scripture speaks of having our con- 



reader's guide. 147 

versation in heaven — but what may that mean ? 
Then is there not this feature to be traced in 
my divine example ? I will open the page and 
see. Jesus spake with his friends — Jesus spake 
with strangers — he sate in conversation at the 
tables of conviviality — he w r alked with his 
companions m the streets, observing on all 
around him. It may be remarked, that of all 
that is transmitted to us of the Saviour's words, 
very little indeed was delivered on grave occa- 
sions and in set discourse. Nearly the whole 
is uttered in what we should call common con- 
versation, called forth by occurrences, and by 
surrounding objects. I may go through the 
whole. I may trace the motives from which 
he acted and his ends. When he departs from 
the city, he tells me why. When he goes up 
to the feast I am informed what he goes to do. 
The motives that actuate him are perpetually 
laid open to my scrutiny, as if on purpose to 
compare them with my own. If I do not find 
self in any, and I find God in all, need I re- 
main at a loss to know what stroke of the 
copyist's pencil will here produce a likeness ? 

And then 1 may find out as well the temper 
and spirit in which he did what he was tasked 
to do. It may have been my misery that even 
the good I do has been done amiss, and only 



148 THE SCRIPTURE 

evil come of it. I have copied him in the pur- 
pose, and in the act, v and yet the drawing is not 
like. Bring it then and compare it with his 
wisdom, with his discretion, with his gentleness, 
with his long forbearance, his humility, his un- 
deviating simplicity and truth. And then the 
casualties of life — its luxuries and privations — 
its kindnesses and wrongs — the good and the 
evil of its providential course. These befell 
him, although he w T as its Lord. Jesus was no 
deity in this, beyond the reach of human des- 
tiny to pleasure or to pain him. Perhaps his 
feelings were as much more acute than mine 
as his nature was more exalted — in nothing 
were they less. Then if I would learn how to 
meet what befalls me, and what use to make of 
it, and with what mind to view it, I may be 
amply taught by his example. And with my 
treatment of my fellow creatures and my gen- 
eral tone of feeling towards them, it is the 
same. There is no secresy of Jesus' mind. His 
holy indignation and intolerance of sin, while 
he stood the friend of the sinner ever, his tender 
and affectionate intercourse with those he loved, 
while yet he gave no countenance to their 
wrong, nor turned aside his foot to conciliate 
their favour — his independent elevation above 
the opinions or the ways of men, while yet he 



reader's guide. 149 

shared the minutest of their interests — 0, it is 
not difficult to see what others were to Jesus 
and what he was to them. 

What is there, then, of all the conduct of 
human life, to which I find no parallel in his — 
for a guide in which I should search these 
Gospels in vain ? They tell me for what Jesus 
prayed, for what he wept, for what he wished 
— for what he asked his Father, and for what 
he thanked him. They tell me when he spoke 
and when he kept silence, and all the purport 
of his words. They tell me where he paid de- 
ference to the established rules of society, and 
where he trampled on them as unholy and 
despised. They tell me in what he lifted his 
head above the distinctions and the pride of life, 
and scorned its proudest and its greatest — in 
what he bowed it lower than the lowliest, and 
became the humblest and the meanest of its 
little ones. I believe they tell me all that I 
have need to know ; a perfect model on which 
to form my character. How often, therefore, 
I return to the study of this portrait, and choose 
these chapters for my devotional exercise, must 
be determined by the degree of my anxiety to 
advance the work of imitation, and forward 
that task the Spirit of God has undertaken, to 
restore to my polluted bosom the pure and per- 
13* 



150 THE SCRIPTURE 

feet image of my God. And this anxiety will 
be proportioned to my hatred of sin and its 
miseries, my love of holiness and its delights. 
I believe they will all be proportioned to my love 
of Jesus and my desire for heaven. For what 
is heaven but the consummation of this task of 
recovery from the baseness and vileness of 
fallen nature, to the restored likeness of God? 
What know I of heaven more than that it is to 
be pure as he is pure, and holy as he is holy — 
to be with him and to be like him ? 

Before I leave the consideration of the Gospels, 
there is something it may be well to say to 
those who are in no considerable anxiety about 
their life and conversation. The world makes 
no great complaint of them, and they feel no 
habitual dissatisfaction with themselves : and 
with respect to the perusal of the Gospels, it 
takes its turn, but has no particular interest, 
because it has been so long familiar ; they 
know it almost by heart — it offers nothing new, 
and they find more benefit from other Scrip- 
tures. I would advise them how to find some- 
thing new in it ; and commend it to them for 
a purpose it has never answered to them yet. 
In their next hours of devotional reading, I 
would recommend them to select some chapters 
of St. Matthew or the other Evangelists, that 



reader's guide. 151 

speak of the life and character of our Lord, and 
employ them for the purpose of self-examina- 
tion, to compare with his life that life with 
which they are so satisfied — with his charac- 
ter that character which gives them so little 
uneasiness, and with his conduct and conver- 
sation, motives, ends, and aims in all his inter- 
course with earth, that spirit and deportment 
of which in themselves the world complains 
not. If there be any resemblance, well — the ex- 
amination will help them to encourage and 
increase it. If there be in all an entire 
contrast, what is to be thought of it ? " If any 
man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of 
his." "His ye are, whose likeness ye bear." 
" If ye have borne the image of the earthly, 
ye must also bear the image of the heavenly." 
" Ye were redeemed, if indeed you be redeemed 
at all," " to be conformed to his likeness." May 
it be that the work of salvation is not begun in 
you ? 



SECTION ELEVENTH. 

THE READING OF THE EPISTLES. 

The Epistles are in some respects distinct and 
different from every other portion of holy writ. 
They were composed after the scheme of sal- 
vation had been consummated. The coming of 
the Messiah had fulfilled the earlier phrophesies. 
Jesus had lived for man's example, and died for 
man's redemption. His resurrection and ascen- 
sion into heaven had witnessed to his divinity ; 
and the Holy Spirit, the Comforter whom he 
promised, had been received, to verify his words, 
and reveal whatever of his truth he had left in 
obscurity. Further, these Scriptures were 
written after the experiment of Christianity, if 
we may so express ourselves, had been made ; 
after it had tried the soil on which it was im- 
planted and was in future to grow, and man 
had tried the character and the fruits of the 
newly-scattered seed. Already had the Saviour's 
predictions been amply verified ; the enmity and 
hatred of the world, the opposition of sin and 
Satan had already had time to show them- 



154 THE SCRIPTURE 

selves, and to call into action the faith of his 
disciples and the power of the principles im- 
planted in their bosoms. Under these cir- 
cumstances, it was to be expected the Epistles 
would contain many things not exhibited 
in the previous Scriptures ; peculiarly suita- 
ble for our study, who stand in the same posi- 
tion of full and certain revelation of things real- 
ized and proved as the apostles did when they 
wrote them. And this is in fact the case. If 
we examine reflectively we shall find there are 
many things relative to Christianity we have 
occasion to know, that cannot be found any- 
where but in the Epistles ; with respect as well 
to the doctrines of the Gospel, as to the circum- 
stances and difficulties that attend the profes- 
sion of it in the church in general, or its indi- 
vidual members. With respect to circumstan- 
ces, there are cases innumerable, which, arising 
out of the profession of Christianity, could find 
an example only among those who had profess- 
ed it ; and with respect to the doctrines, inti- 
mated and darkly revealed throughout the pre- 
vious parts of revelation, they never were fully 
explained to the understanding of the believer, 
till the Holy Spirit was given as his instructor. 
It is thence evident that the Epistles must 
form a most important portion of our devotional 
studies. So evident, we need not perhaps stay 



reader's guide. 155 

to make a remark on those who presume to 
think the study of them not necessary, or less 
necessary than that of the Gospels ; consider 
them as fields of controversy and mazes of cri- 
ticism, unsafe for the simple and the ignorant to 
adventure in. So boldly does man's perversity 
„make darkness of the purest light, find a laby- 
rinth of mystery in the most perfect revelation 
of God's will, and charge their own wilful igno- 
rance and blindness on the obscurity of his holy 
word. 

Scarcely expecting to be read by any who 
are in the habit of thus rejecting and setting 
at naught this portion of the Bible, we allude 
to them but slightly. There may be some, 
however, among our younger readers, who 
have been misled by them to suppose, that 
these parts are too difficult for their understand 
ing ; that the doctrinal parts, at least, must be 
reserved for wiser heads and maturcr years ; 
they having nothing to do but with plain pre- 
cepts and practical results. A greater mistake 
cannot exist, or a more dangerous one. The 
religion of Christ is not a mere system of mo- 
rality, in which opinions are of no consequence, 
so the precepts be observed, and you may 
believe what you like, if you do what you are 
bidden. On the contrary., when Paul w T as 



156 



THE SCRIPTURE 



asked the way of salvation, what he prescribed 
was a point of belief— a doctrine : and it is the 
very first principle of the religion of the Gospel 
and of our church, that if its precepts could be 
observed, which they cannot, without the ac- 
ceptance of its doctrines, being a fabric raised 
on other foundation than that which God has 
laid, it could do no otherwise than fall; and 
what little had been done in the way of slav- 
ish obedience, were not only worthless, but 
bearing actually the character of sin. Of this 
may every one, of whatever age or capacity, be 
assured ; that if they fancy they are fulfilling 
the precepts of religion without understanding 
its fundamental doctrines, they are deceiving 
themselves to their eternal ruin. Most par- 
ticularly on such we urge a frequent, earnest, 
and devout perusal of the Epistles. 

We know, most of us by experience, all by 
observation, how much knowledge is often 
wanting after the principle of grace has been 
received into the heart— how incorrect and 
vacillating principles betray us perpetually 
into errors and excesses, both of conduct and 
opinion. Every new-comer acts upon our ig- 
norance to unsettle and mislead us. Not 
certain what is true or what is right, we fall 
eagerly into every mistake that is proposed to 



reader's guide. 157 

us ; and when its futility is found, either is 
our faith in the Gospel altogether shaken, or 
our steps are retraced in much darkness and 
weariness of spirit. We try the depths and 
intricacies of human controversy; but these 
only involve us in deeper obscurity — for where 
the wise differ, how are the simple to decide ? 
We accumulate books and opinions upon dis- 
puted points, and from their contradictions 
gather greater confusion than we began with : 
or are influenced by a name to take up 
opinions without duly appreciating them, and 
follow a party till some greater name or newer 
party incline us to the opposite. Meantime, 
the spirit of religion thrives not within us — 
"Unstable as water thou shalt not excel." 
The peace of a satisfied conscience is not in 
our bosoms : the activity of a mind set free 
from doubt and fearfulness is not seen in our 
lives: we are, as Paul describes, "Ever learn- 
ing, but never coming to a knowledge of the 
truth." 

Nothing is more essential to the fruition of 
a religious life, than a clear, correct and satis 
fied understanding of the doctrines of the 
Gospel at its commencement. This may be 
proved by fact, as by reasoning it might be ex- 
pected. I have rarely seen a steady course 
14 



158 THE SCRIPTURE 

and a consistent Christian conduct, maintained 
through the life, but I have found the doctrines 
were well understood and received at its com- 
mencement : while of the vacillating, unsteady, 
and unequal walk, I have as generally found 
the origin to be an unsatisfied and uncertain 
creed. Let every one, therefore, however 
young in religion, be persuaded that it is of 
incalculable importance what they believe — 
that though some truths may be more essential 
to salvation than others, there is no truth that 
is unimportant — there cannot be a truth too 
much — a truth of so little value, that it should 
be wilfully dispensed with. I do not advise to 
controversy, but I do advise to strenuous un- 
remitted inquiry, till the mind be fully enlight- 
ened and satisfied of the tenets of its faith. I 
do not advise to wade through the folios of dis- 
putation, but I advise to seek light and know- 
ledge in the pages of Scripture, and never to re- 
linquish the pursuit, till the belief that has 
arisen out of that study is too strong to be 
moved by the opinions of any man ; though 
ready, ever in deepest humility, ready to be re- 
linquished, if by increasing light upon his Holy 
Word, God should disclose to us more or other- 
wise than we have yet perceived. 

And may all, if they will, attain to this clear 



reader's guide. 159 

understanding of the Scriptures, in doctrines 
perhaps for ages controverted, and no nearer 
agreed upon than they were at first ? — I do not 
know. But this I have observed — the igno- 
rant, the unlettered, and the simple-minded, at- 
tain to it, and rest in it, and live by it, while 
wisdom cavils, and learning is at fault — and if 
you go to them with your thinkings, reasonings, 
and doubtings, they smile upon your folly, and 
tell you " it is so in the Bible, and they have no 
doubt the Bible is right." It is certain that 
none can attain to the right understanding of 
the Scriptures, but those to whom God by his 
Spirit will unclose them ; and this Spirit has 
been promised to all who diligently seek it. Is 
the deduction not that the knowledge of all 
truth is within the reach of every one who 
rightly pursues it ? No limit has been set for 
intellect, age, or condition. That this certainty 
of truth is so seldom reached, there may be 
many reasons. Instead of simple, earnest re- 
ference to Scripture for our establishment in 
disputed points of doctrine, we generally receive 
them in the first instance from men — any who 
happen to have influence at the time. Imme- 
diately they become our opinions ; there is a 
sort of appropriation ; we begin to value them 
as something of our own : we grow warm and 



160 THE SCRIPTURE 

eager in their defence ; unconsciously to our- 
selves, a party feeling kindles in our bosoms, 
and the doctrines gain an interest with us, 
quite apart from our persuasion of their truth. 
When these opinions happen to be impugned, 
instead of going to Scripture to see if we are 
really right, we get volume upon volume to 
confirm us in them ; all who are supposed to 
differ being shunned as dangerous, or read with 
settled determination to find them in the wrong. 
Thus we grow warmer and warmer, surer and 
surer — for a little time. Our doctrines being 
founded on no actual certainty derived from 
the understanding of God's word, they are ever 
liable to terminate where they had their origin 
— in the influence of human opinion. Some 
stronger influence, or perhaps the mere effect of 
experience and reflection, discloses to us how 
very little ground we really had for what we so 
warmlv maintained. Now ag-ain, if we were 
wise, we might go to the Scripture to learn a 
better creed, or to get a better foundation for 
the one we have. But it is not uncommon, in- 
stead of this, to find the heady controversialist, 
because himself was wrong, asserting that every- 
body is wrong, or everybody is right — that all 
mean alike, and the points disputed are of no 
consequence — and he that before was violent 



reader's guide. 161 

for an unexamined creed, is now supinely con- 
tented without any creed at all. And from this 
it results, that a great proportion of people do 
not know what they believe — and a still greater 
do not know why they believe what they do — 
and of the remainder very many, when urged 
upon the grounds of their belief, refer you to 
this man and that man, this writer and that 
writer, to anything but the word of God — for 
thence they had them not, however they may 
in fact be found there. 

Most earnestly, therefore, I recommend the 
devotional reading of the Epistles, for the ex- 
press purpose of correcting, confirming, or eluci- 
dating our doctrinal views. This is not a 
knowledge, like others we have spoken of, bet- 
ter reserved for times of study than intruded 
upon our hours of devotion. It is of things to 
be learned best, perhaps learned only on our 
knees — I mean, that since they must be taught 
us of God, they can be learned only in his pre- 
sence, with prayer on the lips, and devotion in 
the heart — in the feeling, if not in the attitude 
of supplication. Whenever you are agitated 
with doubtfulness upon any point of belief, 
when some opinion you have heard distracts 
your judgment, or disturbs your thoughts, by 
no means put it aside as of no consequence, or 
14* 



162 THE SCRIPTURE 

unfit to be entertained — unless indeed it be 
frivolous and beside the purpose of God's reve- 
lation — but take it with you at your next devo- 
tional reading — seek out some chapter that 
hears upon the point, study it as before God ? 
and earnestly entreat him that you may find — 
not the confirmation of previous opinion, argu- 
ments to baffle your opponents — but truth — for 
you or against you. truth. Never, I believe, 
were that our simple object, should we fail to 
find it, and to become gradually enlightened in 
everything God in his revelation has made 
known. If you find doctrines you cannot 
understand, believe them first, and wait for 
more light to understand them by. If there 
are sentences that have been differently inter- 
preted, take them upon their plainest sense, till 
the light of other Scriptures reveals to you a 
better. And having proved your earnest desire 
to know the truth, by the humble, simple, and 
teachable spirit with which you have inquired 
of it before God, go not to disprove it instantly 
on leaving your chamber, by taking the word 
of the first person you meet, in contradiction to 
the word you have been reading : nay, nor the 
opinions of the world united, could you get them 
to agree, against the plain sense of the written 
word of God. But if anything should arise 



reader's guide. 163 

to make you doubt the justness of your conclu- 
sions, go back on the first opportunity to the 
presence of God, and to your Bible, and correct 
the opinion where you formed it. 

It is needless to say the Epistles contain a 
great deal more than doctrines. They are pe- 
culiarly valuable in that they contain directions 
for the life and conversation of Christians, as 
distinct from other men. They are addressed 
to the saints and brethren exclusively, as the 
head of each epistle expresses, and fully make 
known to us what the early followers of Jesus 
were, as well as what God required they should 
be. This is most useful. We are extremely 
apt, particularly in our days of experience, to 
fancy our case unlike to every other — our feel- 
ings, difficulties, and temptations different. 
Yet if we examine the Epistles for the purpose, 
we shall find of almost every case an applica- 
ble and sufficient example, with directions to 
guide, and assurances to support us under it. 
Let us not omit, in every doubt, to have re- 
course to these testimonies of the faithfulness of 
God and the perversity of man. 

The precepts also of the Epistles are invalu- 
able ; and for this reason. Man, when he 
passes from a state of nature to a state of grace, 
becomes a new creature — old things are passed 



164 THE SCRIPTURE 

away, all things are become new. He looks 
about upon the altered world as one who knows 
not where he treads. The rules by which he 
has directed his conduct hitherto are insufficient 
or inapplicable. His previous maxims and ha- 
bits are unsuitable to his new condition. Fix- 
ed and immutable as are the laws of God and 
the principles of right, so thoroughly has man's 
corruption mistaken and perverted them, that 
when summoned back into his Maker's service, 
he has to find himself an entirely new code of 
laws for the direction of his conduct, even in 
the common relationships of life. As a father, 
a child, a servant, a subject, there are new de- 
mands upon his conscience, and new responsi- 
bilities to meet. I do not say different from 
what the natural man's duties are — but decid- 
edly different from what his conduct can be- 
This new code, signified in the ten command- 
ments, and explained in the Saviour's sermon 
on the mount, is amplified and minutely digest- 
ed in the Epistles ; and they cannot be too often 
referred to as a digest of the moral law of God, 
in all its spiritual applications. 



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